Peruse her biography:

Taking Up the Mantle

Part I
Part II

Read more about this period of her life in the excellent monograph:
Emily in the Yukon

Taking Up the Mantle (Part 2)

The Safe Bet was based on an actual incident at London City hall, when the floor collapsed.

In 1898, Chesley's most important work was a play called The Safe Bet, the story of a fictional municipal election that ended in tragedy when the entire council was killed when the floor collapsed in city hall. (1) As many of society's leading (and surviving) members were both at city hall for the actual incident and attending the theatre for the opening night of The Safe Bet, there was quite a stir. In fact, there was a riot, the likes of wasn't seen again until the Winnipeg general strike. Her career in dramaturgy essentially snuffed before it was begun, Chesley left town again under a cloud of controversy. (2)

Her wanderings took her, of all places, to South Africa, where the countryside was like a Phanerogram Rendering Tube: aflame and itching with desire. Except in this case, the lust was for war.

Karl de Wittgen was an excellent rider with incredible stamina (he was also a decent shot).

There Emily fell into a torrid love affair with Karl de Wittgen, a Boer from the Transvaal. (3) This relationship was so exciting that she even censored her own journals to hide the true salacious nature of it. (4) It is this nautch-like passion that informs Chesley's breakthrough novel, the Afrikaans of East Nissouri. Chesley wrote the novel while in South Africa during the start of the war, travelling with Karl as he organized resistance to the British. No record remains of these times, but later in life when Anais Nin asked her about it, Chesley was known to say: "The man could match any stallion, and I know what I'm talking about."

Scholars have also noticed that hirsute Norwegians play less of a role in her novels after this period of her life.

Emily's publisher, a canny censor-dodger named Reggie String, had started up yet another new venture, called Beaverton Press, and was keen to produce Chesley latest book. The novel was so timely that it virtually flew off the shelves, and so passionately written, even Reverend T.I. Titwarbler, Minister of St. Thomas-among-the-Hungones was moved by the piece:

"Oh, the pathos. The indignity of man against man. Minnie Chesterton's dreadfully carnal choice!"

In 1900, Chesley followed Afrikaans up with a rollicking parody of the public school system (and the class system behind it) called East of Eton. East was a fine novel, but once again the highly speculative nature of the piece, and the lurid descriptions of the schoolboys and their masters, called "brownshifties", caused outright alarm and in one case, a full-blown epileptic seizure. The publisher of this novel, B. Lester (Les) Gripping, III, of Abdocramp Press, refused to print any more of her work.

Luckily, Reggie String was once again in business with another new press set up just north of London, called Coldstream Books. He printed Emily's 1901 effort, The Ice Creep, which reviewers described as "debauched and obscene." However, her fellow speculationists were wild with enthusiasm for her work, and pressed her to join the Congress. Predictably, Quentin Farkmee stood in her way:

July 23, 1901
Napanee, Ontario

Dear Miss Chesley,

One can tell instantly from the vapid nature of your prose that you are, in fact, a woman. Let me tell you from the outset that your "speculative" novels are extremely silly and not at all in the majestic style of such masters as HG Wells and his other manly colleagues. Indeed, though The Africaans of East Nissouri showed some merit, and was roundly enjoyed by many of our membership, I am loathe to offer you admission to our august society. Clearly, your weak female nature has hindered your ability to clearly speculate about the future. I can only imagine offering you membership if your novels were clearly labeled as "speculative", and the contents of such a book proved truly so.

In sincere abhorrence,
Quentin Farkmee
Secretary General
Canadian Congress of Speculationists

1901 was a difficult year for Emily, as well as being denied entry to the Canadian Congress of Speculationists, her beloved Uncle died in a tragic accident involving a pair of experimental nostril-hair clippers. (5)

Reggie String's penny-dreadful prose mill, Grunt Imprints, was the target of censors and caricature artists alike, but he was a steadfast supporter of Emily's work.

But Reggie String was once again in business, this time having purchased the penny-dreadful prose mill, Grunt Imprints. He encouraged Emily to write a series of scandalous pieces that even she was reluctant to pen under her own name, instead, using the nom-de-plume, Lady Harriet Bloomer-Schitz. This series of dreadfuls included such rank stories as: The Brutal Butler, The Harpy's Clutch and the only piece that had any merit at all, The Arvan Atavists. (She was later to adapt this work and re-title it, The Dutton Cannibals.)

Even Chesley had to admit that she was overdoing it a bit, when the Rev. Martin Bunmuncher wrote to her about the outrageous Arvan story:

Dear Lady Bloomer-Schitz,

I can tell you on good authority that nobody in Arva has ever tasted human flesh. Except of course, during the Eucharist, and that hardly counts.

In terse annoyance,
Rev. Martin Bunmuncher, etc.

She decided that it was time to take a break from her writing, even though she was gaining in popularity amongst her fellow speculationists. It was during this time that she penned her Gaelic Haiku, published by Titan Yore-Finkster Press near the end of 1903.

It was at this time that Reggie String, flush with his financial success at Grunt, persuaded Emily to do a reprint of Africaans. The graphic prose had lost none of its punch since its original printing, but in the intervening years, knowledge of the British concentration camps had been suppressed; the narrative focused on this, and again, Emily experienced a notoriety alien to most unsuccessful authors.

But still, she was admired by her fellow speculationists, and despite the protests of Quentin Farkmee (who had been defeated in an election to replace him as Secretary General) she delivered her famous speech to the 1904 Convention:

"My critics say that my writings are an offence to moral decency and Christian civilization. While in fact, it is their autocratic regime, rife with a paterfamilas ethic, that is the offence. I humbly suggest to them: get bent."

Though this pronouncement brought the speculationists to their feet with wild applause, the authorities were less than pleased. It was this speech, in fact, more than all of her writings combined, which set in motion the series of events that eventually had her in front of the Privy Council in 1908.

--"Scholarship" by The Squire

<...Back to Part 1: Taking up the mantle

Next:  The Paris Years

Notes:

1. This was based on an actual incident in London, Ontario. On Monday January 3, 1898 a large crowd gathered on the second floor auditorium to celebrate the election of Mayor John D. Wilson. Suddenly, the floor gave way, tossing 250 people to the ground floor below. A five hundred pound safe slid down on top of the folks, crushing many of the victims. A total of twenty-three people died; 150 were injured. [back]

2. There is good evidence that she went to the Yukon before heading off to South Africa. This is documented in the excellent monograph, Emily in the Yukon. [back]

3. There is some irony in the fact that as her travel guide, Chesley took along Farkmee in the Transvaal. [back]

4. It is also in this period that she met Mohandas Karamchand and the Tolkein family, as explained in The Gandhi Connection. [back]

5. This tragic story is detailed in the excellent monograph, Flannigan: Shear Lunacy. [back]