Robert Barr (16 September 1849 – 21 October 1912) was a Scottish-Canadian short story writer and novelist, born in Glasgow, Scotland.
In London of the 1890s Barr became a more prolific author—publishing a book a year—and was familiar with many of the best-selling authors of his day, including Bret Harte and Stephen Crane. Most of his literary output was of the crime genre, then quite in vogue. When Arthur Conan Doyles Sherlock Holmes stories were becoming well-known Barr published in the Idler the first Holmes parody, "The Adventures of Sherlaw Kombs" (1892), a spoof that was continued a decade later in another Barr story, "The Adventure of the Second Swag" (1904). Despite the jibe at the growing Holmes phenomenon Barr and Doyle remained on very good terms. Doyle describes him in his memoirs Memories and Adventures as, "a volcanic Anglo—or rather Scot-American, with a violent manner, a wealth of strong adjectives, and one of the kindest natures underneath it all."
The Robert Barr Collection includes:
The Face and the Mask (English) (as Author)
From Whose Bourne (English) (as Author)
The Idler, Volume III., Issue XIII., February 1893
An Illustrated Monthly. Edited By Jerome K. Jerome & Robert Barr (English) (as Editor)
In a Steamer Chair, and Other Stories (English) (as Author)
In the Midst of Alarms (English) (as Author)
Jennie Baxter, Journalist (English) (as Author)
Lord Stranleigh Abroad (English) (as Author)
One Days Courtship, and The Heralds of Fame (English) (as Author)
The ORuddy: A Romance (English) (as Author)
A Prince of Good Fellows (English) (as Author)
Revenge! (English) (as Author)
A Rock in the Baltic (English) (as Author)
The Strong Arm (English) (as Author)
The Sword Maker (English) (as Author)
The Triumphs of Eugene Valmont (English) (as Author)
A Woman Intervenes (English) (as Author)