Author
Anthony Trollope
1815-1882
Anthony Trollope was an English novelist and Post Office civil servant whose 47 novels, among them the Chronicles of Barsetshire, address the political and social questions of Victorian life.
Anthony Trollope was born in Marylebone, London, on 24 April 1815. His father, a barrister, failed at the Bar, and his mother, Frances Trollope, was a novelist and travel writer. His parents' privileged background and meagre means made his boyhood miserable, and at Harrow and Winchester he was bullied. In 1834 his father fled to Belgium to avoid arrest for debt, and the family lived on Frances's earnings.
That year Anthony became a Post Office clerk in London, where he was known for unpunctuality. In 1841 he volunteered for a post in Ireland, where by his own account he soon earned a reputation as a valuable public servant. He met Rose Heseltine there and married her in 1844. He wrote on the long train journeys his postal work required, setting firm goals for how much he would write each day.
A visit to Salisbury Cathedral gave him the idea for The Warden (1855), the first of six novels set in the imaginary county of Barsetshire, dealing mainly with the clergy and landed gentry. It brought him to the attention of readers, and Barchester Towers (1857) helped establish his reputation. The Way We Live Now (1875), a satire, was not popular when it appeared, but critics now generally regard it as his masterpiece.
He died in Marylebone on 6 December 1882, after a major stroke. His An Autobiography, published after his death, revealed that he kept to a daily writing quota and wrote for money, which harmed his standing with critics, but he regained a following in the 20th century.
Sources: wikipedia.org
