William Clark Russell was a popular American writer of nautical novels and horror stories. Russell gained his experience of sea life during eight years' service as a sailor. Then he was a journalist on the staff of the Daily Chronicle before he took to writing his many novels, only a few of which are listed here. As a testament to the popularity of Russell's novels in his day, one can read about him at the beginning of the Sherlock Holmes story "The Five Orange Pips," where Doctor Watson is shown 'deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea stories'.