Sir Walter Besant

Sir Walter Besant , 1836-1901, English novelist and humanitarian, grad. Christ's College, Cambridge, 1859. He taught at the Royal College of Mauritius from 1861 to 1867. After his return to England he devoted himself to writing and to various causes, among them the improvement of the copyright laws. His first novels (in collaboration with James Rice) won immediate popularity. Romantic and somewhat florid in style, they include The Golden Butterfly (1876) and Ready-Money Mortiboy (1872). Many of Besant's novels, written after the collaboration with Rice, dealt with social problems; among them were All Sorts and Conditions of Men (1882) and Children of Gibeon (1886). Besant was one of the most widely read novelists of the late 19th cent. He was knighted in 1895.

Bibliography: See his autobiography (1902, repr. 1971).

Besant, Sir Walter (1836–1901), collaborated with James Rice and together they produced several best-selling novels, including Ready-Money Mortiboy (1872), The Golden Butterfly (1876), and The Chaplain of the Fleet (1881). He was deeply interested in the life of the poor, especially in the East End of London, and the terrible social conditions of industrial workers and draws attention to these in All Sorts and Conditions of Men (1882) and Children of Gibeon (1886); he stimulated the foundation of the People's Palace, Mile End (1887), for intellectual improvement and rational amusement. In 1884 he founded the Society of Authors, and became editor of The Author in 1890; he defined the financial position of authors in The Pen and the Book (1899). He also wrote historical works, histories of different parts of London, and A Survey of London (1902–12).