active 1840-1883 Sutherland Menzies

Writing under the name Sutherland Menzies, James Sutherland Menzies was a British author and journalist of the 19th century. Library and public-domain records connect that name with a long run of publications across the mid-Victorian period, which matches the "active 1840-1883" dating often used in catalogues.

He is now most often remembered for Hugues the Wer-Wolf, an early werewolf story that helped keep his name alive with modern readers of classic horror. But his work was much broader than that: catalogues of his books show historical, biographical, and cultural titles such as Political Women and Royal Favourites, suggesting a writer drawn to dramatic lives, power, and the strange corners of history.

Some reference records identify him as James Sutherland Menzies and give life dates of 1806 to 1886, while at least one literary note also mentions uncertainty around the authorship of Hugues the Wer-Wolf. Because of that small amount of disagreement in the records, it is safest to describe him as a prolific Victorian-era writer and compiler whose work moved easily between sensation, history, and biography.