Belloc, Joseph Hilaire Pierre Rene

(1870-1953)

   Sussex poet, historian, biographer, journalist and essayist, most remembered for his endearing children's poetry. He graduated with first-class honors in history from Balliol College, Oxford. Born in France, he took British nationality in 1902. He was a journalist and editor of the Morning Post and a member of Parliament for Salford, Lancashire. His essays show contempt for the political, literary and social establishments of his day. His first book of poems, The Bad Child's Book of Beasts and Verses and Sonnets, was published in 1896; thereafter his output was enormous. One of his comic poems is "Henry King, Who Chewed Bits of String, and Was Early Cut Off in Dreadful Agonies." Some of his other poems: "Franklin Hyde," "George," "Godolphin Horne," "Ha'nacker Mill," "In a Boat," "On a General Election," "The Early Morning," "The Elephant," "The Frog," "The Hippopotamus," "The Justice of the Peace," "The Lion," "The Llama," "The Scorpion," "The South Country," "West Sussex Drinking Song."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. Modern British Poetry. Louis Untermeyer, ed. Harcourt, Brace, 7th rev. ed., 1962. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.org.uk). The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000.