Half A Chance

Half a Chance is written by an American author and playwright Frederic Stewart Isham and published in 1909. This novel is a fast and enjoyable story with not too much reality in it which well compiles the general theme of Isham's work.

It relates with the age-old question of nature vs nature; that given 'half a chance' a person, of whatever line, can be a noble, ethical human being and, on the other side, a gentleman of high birth can be a complete rascal.

In this story Frisco Pet, an ex-prize fighter, is plaintiff of the murder of a woman of the underworld because he is spotted in her room in a drunken condition, alone with her body.

In actuality Lord Ronsdale, a nobleman, had come to break with this woman, who, in a effort to blackmail him, took out a revolver which by accident went off. Frisco Pet is sent to the territories in a convict ship on which Lord Ronsdale also starts with Lord and Lady Wray and their six year old niece Jocelyn.

A storm comes up but all the characters are saved and after many years there is much drama in this story and after that Wrays consent to Jocelyn's engagement with John Steele.


Frederic Stewart Isham (1866-1922) was an American author and playwright, whose plays were once popular on Broadway and were made into films.

His works include: History of the Detroit Light Guard (1896), The Strollers (1902), Under the Rose (1903), Black Friday (1904), Half a Chance (1909), The Social Bucaneer (1910), The Treasure (1910), A Man and His Money (1912), The Passing of Bill (1912), Aladdin from Broadway (1913), Nothing but the Truth (1914), This Way Out (1917), Three Live Ghosts (1918) and The Nut Cracker (1920).