Besant, Sir Walter

(1836-1901)

   Born in Portsmouth and educated at King's College London and Christ's College, Cambridge, Besant is better known for his novels and philanthropy than for his poetry. Much of his boyhood is described by him in his novel By Celia's Arbor. He was professor at the Royal College, Mauritius, and secretary to the Palestine Exploration Fund (18681886), a society founded in 1864 for the systematic exploration of Palestine. His collaboration with James Rice, editor of Once a Week, which lasted until Rice's death (1882), produced several best-selling novels. He published Early French Poetry in 1969. His novel All Sorts and Conditions of Men (1882) was based on his impressions of the East London slums. He founded the "Society of Authors" in 1884. Some of his poems: "May Day," "Faith and Freedom," "The Day is Coming," "To Daphne."

   Sources: A Century of Humorous Verse, 1850-1950. Roger Lancelyn Green, ed. E.P. Dutton (Everyman's Library), 1959. Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Home Book of Verse. Burton Egbert Stevenson, ed. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1953. The National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.org.uk). The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000.