Benson, Arthur Christopher

(1862-1925)

   Benson was the son of a former Archbishop of Canterbury. He was a schoolmaster at Eton College, but resigned in 1903 with the idea of concentrating on his writing and went to live at Cambridge. In collaboration with Viscount Esher (1907) he published, in three volumes, Selections from the Correspondence of Queen Victoria. He was elected master of Magdalene College, Cambridge, in 1915. The following year, under the pseudonym "Christopher Carr," Benson published the imaginary Memoirs of Arthur Hamilton. Three volumes of poems and one of essays soon followed. He wrote the nationalistic "Land of Hope and Glory," set to music by Sir Edward Elgar (from the trio of his Pomp and Circumstance No. 1 ), which is traditionally sung (accompanied by flag waving) at the last night of the Proms from the Royal Albert Hall, London. Some of his other poems: "Amen," "Burnham Beeches," "By the Cage," "Knapweed," "Lord Vyet," "Prelude," "S. Vincent De Paul," "The Ant-Heap," "The Ash-Heap," "The Monotone," "The Phoenix," "The Pinewood," "The Shadow," "The Soul of a Cat."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. English Poetry: Author Search. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html). 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 New Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. Christopher Ricks, ed. Oxford University Press, 2002. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000.