Rands William Brighty

(1823-1882)

   "The laureate of the nursery" who also wrote under the pseudonyms of Henry Holbeach and Matthew Browne was born in Chelsea, London, the son of shopkeeper. His limited education was developed by reading from second-hand bookstalls. He taught himself shorthand and was employed as a reporter in the committee rooms of the House of Commons until ill health forced his resignation in 1875. He wrote for many periodicals, including Illustrated London News, The Spectator, Good Words and Good Words for the Young. He died at East Dulwich and was buried at Forest Hill (now in Greater London). His reputation was as a children's poet and writer of fairy tales, which he published every Christmas for many years. His poetry publications: The Chain of Lilies, and Other Poems, 1857. Lilliput Levee, 1864. Little Ben Bute, 1880 (with colored illustrations). Lilliput Lyrics, 1889. Miss Hooper's Hoop, 1949. Some of his poems: "Clean Clara," "Gipsy Jane," "Godfrey Gordon Gustavus Gore," "The Cat of Cats," "The Dream of a Boy Who Lived at Nine Elms," "The Pedlar's Caravan," "The Ship That Sailed into the Sun," "Topsy-turvy World."

   Sources: 101 Favorite Cat Poems. Sara L. Whittier, ed. Contemporary Books, 1991. 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). Moon is Shining Bright as Day: An Anthology of Good-humoured Verse. Ogden Nash, ed. J.B. Lippincott, 1953. Stanford University Libraries and Academic Information Resources (http://library.stanford.edu). 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 Home Book of Verse for Young Folks. Burton Egbert Stevenson, ed. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1929. The Oxford Book of Children's Verse. Iona Opie and Peter Opie, eds. Oxford University Press, 1973. The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1918. Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. New edition, revised and enlarged, Oxford University Press, 1939. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. The Penguin Book of Victorian Verse. George Macbeth, ed. Penguin Classics, 1999. The Writings of William Brighty Rands (http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/rands/bibl.html).