Haggard, Henry

RIDER, novelist, was born in Norfolk, England, June 22, 1856; went to Natal (1875) as private secretary to Sir Henry Bulmer, and afterward stone, in the Transvaal. On his return to England, H. entered upon a literary career; his first book, Cetewayo and his White Neighbors , published in 1882, being descriptive of life and conditions in South Africa. Of his novels, Dawn appeared in 1884, The Witch's Head in 1885, King Solomon's Mines in 1886, and She in 1887. The two last named placed H. in the very front rank as a popular novelist, and his subsequent works were for some years frequent and numerous, his style being wonderfully vivid and imaginative. Of his society novels, Be at rice is one of the most popular.