Category: Biographies

My Life as an Author

Infancy and Schooldays--Parentage--Germany and Guernsey, America and Canada--Winsor's Patent Gaslights--King George III.'s Blessing--My Father's Dream--Second Sight--Heredity--First School at Brentford--Next at Brook Green--Third Charterhouse--Dr. Russell--Parson Schoolmasters...

Chapters

82. Chapter 82

Among the many literary men and women of my acquaintance there are some (for it is not possible to enumerate all) of whom I should like to make some mention; and, _place aux dâm...

45. Chapter 45

Of my earliest MS., written soon after my seventh birthday, I have no copy, and only a very confused memory: but I remember that my good mother treasured for years and showed to...

54. Chapter 54

And this may well be a fitting place wherein to record the origin, progress, and after long years the full completion of what is manifestly my chief authorial work in life, "Pro...

86. Chapter 86

Having often been asked to put on record my few and far-between experiences of spiritualism, as on several occasions I have verbally related them, I have hitherto neglected or d...

44. Chapter 44

In a short and simple way, then, and without any desire ostentatiously to "chronicle small beer," as Iago sneers it, I suppose it proper to state very briefly when and where I w...

91. Chapter 91

A few last words as to sundry life-experiences. Whether we notice it or not, we are guided and guarded and led on through many changes and chances to the gates of death in a mar...

83. Chapter 83

It is only fair and right that I make special mention of some friendships of many years, connected more or less with literary matters. Among such names in the past occurs one, i...

72. Chapter 72

In such a record of personals as this, it is fortunate both for the author and his readers if he has never been one of those literary lions who are merely histrionic creatures o...

55. Chapter 55

In 1839, Rickerby was again my publisher; the new book being "A Modern Pyramid; to Commemorate a Septuagint of Worthies." In this volume, commencing with Abel, and ending with F...

47. Chapter 47

Soon after leaving Oxford, and when some attempts to help my speech seemed to be partially successful, my father wished me to take orders, which also from religious motives was...

74. Chapter 74

A vast volume is before me containing my first American journal, which I sent over piecemeal in letters and newspaper clippings to Albury, where my wife and daughters arranged t...

52. Chapter 52

In a recent page I have alluded to sundry "fads and fancies of the day," some of greater and others of lesser import, and I have been mixed up in two or three of them. For examp...

75. Chapter 75

After the long interval of five-and-twenty years, filled up with many more such volumes and fly-leaves, I called again by pressing invitation on my American constituency, and fo...

84. Chapter 84

Throughout my lengthened spell of life I never was anything of a zealous politician. Well acquainted, as I have been, with many men of all manner of opinions, and having had muc...

46. Chapter 46

In 1829 I was entered as a commoner at Christ Church, Oxford, and went through the usual course of lectures with fair success. As a family we have all favoured Oxford rather tha...

62. Chapter 62

When I returned in the autumn of 1855 from my principal continental tour, wherein for three months I had conducted my whole family of eleven (servants inclusive) all through the...

63. Chapter 63

Sundry of my short lyrics have gained a great popularity: in particular "Never give up," whereof there are extant--or were--no fewer than eight musical settings. Of this ballad,...

56. Chapter 56

My next book, published by Bentley in 1841, is in some sort a psychological curiosity,--its title being "An Author's Mind, the Book of Title-pages;" and when I add that it conta...

76. Chapter 76

I have another vast volume before me, recounting my English and Scotch Reading Tours, with full details of innumerable home kindnesses and hospitalities, from Ventnor in the Sou...

67. Chapter 67

Authorship reaps honour in these latter days quite as much as it did in the classic times of Augustus with Virgil and Horace for his intimates, and of Petrarch crowned at the Ca...

79. Chapter 79

A word or two about autographs, surely a topic suitable to this book: in fact, I have sometimes preferred to spell it authorgraphs: most public men are troubled nowadays with th...

68. Chapter 68

My several royal poems, some twenty in number, may deserve a short and special notice; though it is far from my intention to detail any gracious condescensions of a private natu...

78. Chapter 78

There is an extinct pamphlet, now before me, published by Routledge in 1860, entitled "The Rifle Movement Foreshown in Prose and Verse from 1848 to the Present Time,"--from my p...

71. Chapter 71

Amongst other memorabilia in no particular order, let me set down a few visits, longer than a mere call, to sundry persons and places of note. As these, for instance. Annually d...

48. Chapter 48

One of the apparent calamities of my life (overruled, as I have long since seen, for good) was the before-mentioned affliction of a very bad impediment of speech, which blighted...

49. Chapter 49

In the course of my Oxford career I tried for two Newdigate Prize poems, "The Suttees" and the "African Desert," won respectively by Claughton, now Bishop of St. Albans, and Ric...

85. Chapter 85

In connection with the above, I will here print for the first time a paper written long ago on the now rife subject of a cure for Irish misery; at all events partially. Ireland...

59. Chapter 59

I wrote "Stephan Langton, a Story of the Time of King John," because, 1st, I had little to do in the country; 2dly, I wished to give some special literary lift to Albury and its...

81. Chapter 81

I took my family to these Northern Isles of the Sea in 1859, sailing from Aberdeen in a once-a-week steamer; some of our passengers were notable, as Dasent of the Norse Tales (s...

77. Chapter 77

I have something of interest to say about the first laying of the electric telegraph across the Atlantic. Sir Culling Eardley invited a number of savants, among them Wheatstone...

57. Chapter 57

The origin of the "Crock of Gold" is so well given in a preface, written by Mr. Butler of Philadelphia, for his American edition of my works in 1851, that I choose here to repro...

61. Chapter 61

The best of my unpublished MSS. of any size or consequence is perhaps my translation of Book Alpha of the Iliad, quite literal and in its original metre of hexameters: hitherto...

43. Chapter 43

I have often been asked to prepare an autobiography, but my objections to the task have ever been many and various. To one urgent appeal I sent this sonnet of refusal, which exp...

53. Chapter 53

With the exception of "Rough Rhymes," my first Continental Journal as aforesaid, and a song or two, and a few juvenile poems, my first appearance in print, the creator of a real...

66. Chapter 66

My most literary antiquarianism was an article I wrote for the _Quarterly Review_ on Coins, accepted by Lockhart and inserted in one of the Nos. for 1843; he protested that "I c...

89. Chapter 89

A lecture which I gave at the Royal Aquarium on September 28, 1883, on the Art of Human Flight, attracted at the time a good deal of newspaper notice; my friend Colonel Fred. Bu...

51. Chapter 51

But there are many other sorts of peril in human life to which I may briefly advert, as we all have had some experiences of the same. Who does not know of his special financial...

69. Chapter 69

A page or two about my connection with the Royal Society may have some small interest. When my father (who had long been a Fellow) died in 1844, I wished to give to the Society...

88. Chapter 88

My lamented son, Henry de Beauvoir, active and athletic, was killed in South Africa by the most unlikely accident of being jolted off the front seat in a rutty road and crushed...

50. Chapter 50

Carlyle somewhere gives utterance to a truism, which the present scribe at least can most gratefully countersign, that "it takes a great deal of providence to bring a man to thr...

70. Chapter 70

It has several times happened to me, as doubtless to others of my brethren, to find that I have been personated, certainly to my considerable discredit. Take these instances. Wh...

87. Chapter 87

Ever since Schiller wrote his famous song about a poet's heritage (ay, and long before that, as it will be long years hence), authorship has been noted for anything rather than...

80. Chapter 80

As to my several efforts in print to hinder cruelty to animals, beside and beyond what a reader may already find in my published books, let me chiefly mention these two fly-leav...

58. Chapter 58

"Æsop Smith's Rides and Reveries" is one of the books which, really written by me from beginning to end, is nominally only edited. It is a volume of self-experiences, to be read...

64. Chapter 64

Among my many fly-leaves, scattered by thousands from time to time in handbills or in newspapers all over the world, those in which I have praised Protestantism and denounced th...

65. Chapter 65

One of my latest publications is that of my "Trilogy of Plays," with twelve dramatic scenes,--issued by Allen & Co., of Waterloo Place. The first of the three, "Alfred," was put...

90. Chapter 90

I gave a second lecture, one on Luther, at the same place, and on the like solicitation of Mr. Le Fevre, President of the Balloon Society; the date being November 9, 1883.

60. Chapter 60

On the three-hundredth anniversary of Shakespeare at Stratford-on-Avon I contributed an ode, to be found in my extant book of poems. Among the notabilia of the feastings and cel...

73. Chapter 73

My American Ballads, perhaps after "Proverbial Philosophy," the chief cause of my Transatlantic popularities, had their origin at Albury. The first of these and the most famous,...

33. Chapter 33

Literary Friends--Mrs. Somerville, Miss Granville, Mrs. Jameson, Mrs. Beecher Stowe, Ouida, Miss Braddon, Mrs. Carter Hall, Mrs. Grote, Lady Wilde, Miss Mackay, Rogers, Carlyle,...

27. Chapter 27

English and Scotch Readings, very rapid, from Isle of Wight to Peterhead--My Entrepreneur D.: his Experiences: I Failed with Him, but Succeeded Alone--Specimen of Readings--Loca...

37. Chapter 37

Some Spiritist Experiences--Not a Spiritualist, but an Honest Recorder of Facts--Alexis--Howell--Vernon's Mesmerised Child--Mrs. Cora Tappan--Chauncey Townsend's Book--Spirit-Dr...

25. Chapter 25

First American Visit--Too Temperate for 1851; not Temperate enough for 1876--Grand Dinner at Baltimore, and Great Speech--The Astor Dinner--"Amice Davis"--Mayor Kingsland and th...

26. Chapter 26

Second American Visit--Extreme Gold--Talmage--Bryant--Cooper--"Immortality" at the Tabernacle--Lotus Club--Lord Rosebery--Dr. Levis--Mr. Pettit's Portrait--The Listers at Hamilt...

34. Chapter 34

Some Older Friendships--Nightingale, and Farley Heath--Walter Hawkins--His Tomb--Anchor--Anagrams--Christmas Largesse--Sham Antiques--Joseph Durham--Alice's Statue--"Sir Joe" an...

1. Chapter 1

Infancy and Schooldays--Parentage--Germany and Guernsey, America and Canada--Winsor's Patent Gaslights--King George III.'s Blessing--My Father's Dream--Second Sight--Heredity--F...

8. Chapter 8

Origin of "Proverbial Philosophy"--M'Neile and Stebbing--N.P. Willis--Harrison Ainsworth--Hatchard's--Moxon's--Cassell's--A Prophecy--My Father's Letter and Gift--Sixty Times--P...

23. Chapter 23

11. Chapter 11

40. Chapter 40

2. Chapter 2

14. Chapter 14

18. Chapter 18

42. Chapter 42

32. Chapter 32

10. Chapter 10

4. Chapter 4

22. Chapter 22

39. Chapter 39

19. Chapter 19

24. Chapter 24

35. Chapter 35

7. Chapter 7

29. Chapter 29

36. Chapter 36

38. Chapter 38

3. Chapter 3

9. Chapter 9

41. Chapter 41

15. Chapter 15

28. Chapter 28

30. Chapter 30

12. Chapter 12

13. Chapter 13

17. Chapter 17

6. Chapter 6

5. Chapter 5

21. Chapter 21

31. Chapter 31

16. Chapter 16

20. Chapter 20