Sir Walter Besant

Novelist and social reformer, born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, S England, UK, the brother-in-law of Annie Besant. He studied at King's College, London, and at Cambridge. After a few years as a professor in Mauritius, he devoted himself to literature. In 1871 he entered into a literary partnership with James Rice (1843–82), writing several novels. His All Sorts and Conditions of Men (1882) and Children of Gideon (1886), describing conditions in the slums of the east end of London, and other novels advocating social reform, resulted in the establishment of the People's Palace (1887) for popular recreation. In 1894 he began a survey of London, which appeared in 10 volumes (1902–12). He was knighted in 1895.

Sir Walter Besant (August 14, 1836 Portsmouth - June 9, 1901 London), was a novelist and historian from London.

The son of a mechant, he was born at Portsmouth, and attended school at St Paul's, Southsea, Stockwell Grammar, London and King's College London. After a year as Mathematical Master at Rossall School and a year at Leamington College, he spent 6 years as professor of mathematics at the Royal College, Mauritius. A breakdown in health compelled him to resign, and he returned to England and settled in London in 1867. Three years later he began his collaboration with James Rice. Among their joint productions are Ready-money Mortiboy (1872), and the Golden Butterfly (1876), both, especially the latter, very successful. This connection was brought to an end by the death of Rice in 1882. continued to write voluminously at his own hand, his leading novels being All in a Garden Fair, Dorothy Forster (his own favourite), Children of Gibeon, and All Sorts and Conditions of Men. In this crusade Besant had considerable success, the establishment of The People's Palace in the East of London being one result. wrote largely on the history and topography of London.

Other works among novels are My Little Girl, With Harp and Crown, This Son of Vulcan, The Monks of Thelema, By Celia's Arbour, and The Chaplain of the Fleet, all with Rice; and The Ivory Gate, Beyond the Dreams of Avarice, The Master Craftsman, The Fourth Generation, etc., alone. London under the Stuarts, London under the Tudors are historical.

Selected Primary Bibliography Fiction The Alabaster Box. 3 vols. All Sorts and Conditions of Men. 3 vols. 3 vols. The Bell of St. Paul's. 3 vols. 3 vols. With James Rice. Reprinted from The Graphic. 3 vols. The Captains' Room etc. 3 vols. The Case of Mr. Lucraft and other tales. By the authors of Ready Money Mortiboy (with James Rice). 2 vols. The Changeling. The Chaplain of the Fleet. With James Rice 3 vols. 3 vols. The City of Refuge. 3 vols. 3 vols. 3 vols. The Fourth Generation. The Golden Butterfly. With James Rice. 3 vols. 3 vols. The Holy Rose &c. The Ivory Gate. 3 vols. The Lady of Lynn. The Master Craftsman. 2 vols. The Monks of Thelema. With James Rice. 3 vols. With James Rice. 3 vols. The Orange Girl. from Once a Week. With James Rice. 3 vols. The Rebel Queen. 3 vols. The Revolt of Man. 3 vols. The Seamy Side. With James Rice. 3 vols. The Ten Years' Tenant and other stories. With James Rice. 3 vols. With James Rice. 3 vols. "Twas in Trafalgar's Bay" and other stories. With James Rice. With Harp and Crown. By the authors of “Ready-Money Mortiboy.” With James Rice. 3 vols. The World Went Very Well Then. 3 vols. Collected edition of Besant's fiction

Novels by W.B. 10 vols. Comprising in sequence Ready-Money Mortiboy, This Son of Vulcan, With Harp and Crown, The Golden Butterfly, By Celia’s Arbour, The Seamy Side, The Chaplain of the Fleet, The Case of Mr. Lucraft and Other Tales, ‘Twas in Trafalgar’s Bay and Other Stories, The Ten Years’ Tenant and Other Stories [My Little Girl, The Monks of Thelema apparently missing from this series].

Plays The Charm and other drawing-room plays. The Art of Fiction: A Lecture Delivered at the Royal Institution on Friday Evening, April 25, 1884. and Walter Besant. The Eulogy of Richard Jefferies. The French Humourists from the 12th to the 19th century. The Life and Achievements of Edward Henry Palmer. 1883. The Pen and the Book. The Queen’s Reign and its commemoration. With James Rice.

New ed. Selected Books on London [volumes in the 10-volume 'Survey of London published by A & Early London: prehistoric, Roman, Saxon, and Norman. Fascination of London series. 1912.* Medieval London. 2 vols. Fascination of London series. The Strand District. Fascination of London series. The Thames. Fascination of London series. Bindoff, "East End Delight", East London Papers 3 (1960): 31-40. Boege, "Sir Walter Besant: Novelist", Nineteenth Century Fiction 10 (1956): 249-80; Simon Eliot, "'His Generation Read His Stories': Walter Besant, Chatto and Windus and All Sorts and Conditions of Men," Publishing History 21 (1987): 25-67. John Goode, "The Art of Fiction: Walter Besant and Henry James," in David Howard , John Lucas, and John Goode, eds., Tradition and Tolerance in Nineteenth-Century Fiction: Critical Essays on Some English and American Novels (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1966). Harper, "Walter Besant’s London", Chapter VII of his A Literary Man’s London (London: Cecil Palmer, 1926), pp.196-221. Gareth Stedman Jones, Outcast London: A Study in the Relationship between Classes in Victorian Society (Oxford: Clarendon, 1971). Keating, The Working Classes in Victorian Fiction (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1971). Peter Keating, The Haunted Study: A Social History of the English Novel 1875-1914 (London: Secker and Warburg, 1989). Andrew Mearns, "The Bitter Cry of Outcast London" (1883 penny pamphlet). Saville, From Palace to College: An Illustrated Account of Queen Mary College, University of London (London: Queen Mary College, 1985). Alan Palmer, The East End: Four Centuries of London Life (London: John Murray, 1989). Review, All Sorts and Conditions of Men, Westminster Review NS 63 (January 1883): 288. Review, All Sorts and Conditions of Men, Spectator, 21 October 1882: 1349. Helen Small, "Introduction," Walter Besant, All Sorts and Conditions of Men (Oxford: OUP, 1997), x-xxv. Mark Spilka, "Henry James and Walter Besant: 'The Art of Fiction' Controversy," Novel 6 (1973): 101-9. Eileen Yeo, "Culture and Constraint in Working-Class Movements," in Eileen Yeo and Stephen Yeo, eds., Popular Culture and Class Conflict, 1590-1914: Explorations in the History of Labour and Leisure (Brighton, 1987), 155-86.