As a student of Oxford University, Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch signed articles contributed to the Oxford University Magazine with the letter "Q," and he continued to use that signature all his life. Q had a remarkable, and yet dual, career: first, he published thirteen collections of short stories and nineteen novels (1887--1912); next, he became the second professor of English literature at Cambridge University and contributed to educational reform (1912--1944). This doubleness pervades his career. In London he contributed to magazines and newspapers, but he lived in Cornwall and his fiction is set almost exclusively there; in Cambridge he was in residence during term as fellow at Jesus College, but as soon as term ended, he was off to Cornwall. His Cambridge colleagues noticed only a few provincialisms in his speech, but his fiction often employs Cornish dialect speakers. He participated in local government in Cornwall (he was mayor...