Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Adam ST (No 1) Palestine Exploration Fund Walter Besant On Wiki
Adam ST (No 1) Palestine Exploration Fund Walter Besant On Wiki
Notice something different? We've made a few improvements to Wikipedia. Learn more!
Walter Besant
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Main page
Contents Sir Walter Besant (August 14, 1836, Portsmouth - June 9, 1901, London), was a novelist and
Featured content historian who lived largely in London.
Current events His sister-in-law was Annie Besant.
Random article
Contents [hide]
Interaction 1 Biography
About Wikipedia 2 Selected Primary Bibliography
Community portal 3 Secondary Bibliography
Recent changes 4 References
Contact Wikipedia 5 Bibliography
Donate to Wikipedia 6 External links
Help
Biography [edit]
Toolbox Walter Besant
Print/export
The son of a merchant, he was born at Portsmouth, Hampshire and attended school at St Paul's,
Southsea, Stockwell Grammar, London and King's College London. During 1855, he was admitted as a pensioner to Christ's College,
Languages Cambridge, where he graduated in 1859 as 18th wrangler.[1] After a year as Mathematical Master at Rossall School, Fleetwood, Lancashire and
a year at Leamington College, he spent 6 years as professor of mathematics at the Royal College, Mauritius. A decrease of health compelled
him to resign, and he returned to England and settled in London during 1867. From 1868 to 1885 he had the job of Secretary to the Palestine
Exploration Fund. During 1871, he was admitted to Lincoln's Inn
He published during 1868 Studies in French Poetry. Three years later he began his collaboration with writer James Rice. Among their joint
productions are Ready-money Mortiboy (1872), and the Golden Butterfly (1876), both, especially the latter, very successful. This association was
ended by the death of Rice during 1882. Thereafter Besant continued to write voluminously by himself, his main novels being All in a Garden Fair
(which Rudyard Kipling credited in Something of Myself with inspiring him to leave India and make a career as a writer), Dorothy Forster (his own
favorite), Children of Gibeon, and All Sorts and Conditions of Men. The two latter belonged to a series in which he endeavored to arouse the
public conscience to the sadness of life among the poorest classes of cities. In this crusade Besant had considerable success, the
establishment of The People's Palace in the East of London being one result. In addition to his fiction, Besant wrote largely on the history and
topography of London. His plans for this topic were left unfinished: among his books on this subject is London in the 18th Century.
Besant was a freemason, serving as Master Mason in the Marquis of Dalhousie Lodge, London from 1873. He conceived the idea of a Masonic
research lodge, the Quatuor Coronati Lodge of which he was first treasurer from 1886.[2]
He was treasurer of the 'Atlantic Union', an association which sought to improve social relations between Britons and Americans.[3]
References [edit]
1. ^ Besant, Walter in Venn, J. & J. A., Alumni Cantabrigienses, Cambridge University Press, 10 vols, 1922–1958.
2. ^ Harry S. Truman, William R. Denslow (1957). 10,000 Famous Freemasons from A to J Part One. ISBN 1417975784.
3. ^ "Object of Atlantic Union". New York Times. 5 June 1900.
Bibliography [edit]
This article incorporates public domain text from : Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature.
London, J. M. Dent & Sons; New York, E. P. Dutton.
Categories: 1836 births | 1901 deaths | English novelists | People from Portsmouth | Alumni of King's College London | Fellows of King's
College London | Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of Use for details.
Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Contact us
converted by Web2PDFConvert.com