H. Rider Haggard

Henry Rider Haggard was born on 22 June 1856 at Bradenham, Norfolk, the eighth of ten children of William Meybohm Rider Haggard, a barrister, and Ella Doveton, an author and poet. His father could no longer afford private schooling for him, so he attended Ipswich Grammar School. After failing his army entrance exam he was sent to a crammer in London.

In 1875 his father sent him to what is now South Africa, in an unpaid post as assistant to the secretary of the Lieutenant-Governor of Natal. In 1877 he was in Pretoria for the announcement of the British annexation of the Transvaal, and read out much of the proclamation himself when the official lost his voice. He married Louisa Margitson in 1880, and in 1882 the couple settled in Norfolk. He was called to the bar in 1884, but spent much of his time writing novels, which he saw as more profitable.

After a handful of unsuccessful novels he wrote King Solomon's Mines (1885), taking a 10 per cent royalty rather than £100 for the copyright. It is sometimes considered the first lost world novel, and its hero, Allan Quatermain, appears in eighteen novels and stories. A sequel, Allan Quatermain, was followed by She, which had sold 83 million copies by 1965.

His novels carry many of the stereotypes of colonialism and have been criticised for their depictions of non-Europeans, though Africans often play heroic roles in them. Haggard was knighted in 1912, and died in London on 14 May 1925, aged 68.

Sources: wikipedia.org