H. Rider Haggard - Biography and Works, H. Rider Haggard was born on June 22, 1856, at Wood Farm, West Bradenham, Norfolk, England. He was the eighth of ten children to his father William Meybohm Rider Haggard (1817-1893), a barrister, and his wife Ella Doventon, a poet and daughter of a merchant in the East India Trading Company (d. 1889). Haggard attended Ipswich Grammar School and also received tutoring at home. Disappointed with his son's progress up to that point, in 1875 Haggard's father offered Sir Henry Bulwer, then lieutenant-governor of Natal, the secretarial service of his nineteen-year-old son to live with him and assist in the running of his Natal estate. Once there, for a time he accompanied Sir Theophilus Shepstone into the Transvaal where Zulus, Boers, and Britons fought for supremacy. Haggard was present in Pretoria to read the British annexation of the Boer Republic of the Transvaal because the Governor had lost his voice. In 1878 he became Registrar of the High Court in the Transvaal, an area that would later become part of South Africa. This period of his life provided the initial inspiration and material for his future novels. Haggard would later dedicate Nada the Lily (1892) to Sir Theophilus Shepstone and Marie (1912) to Sir Henry Bulwer.
On August 11, 1880, Haggard married Englishwoman Mariana Louisa Margitson. Their first child was a boy named Jack. Haggard would name three of his daughters after heroines in his books. The British defeat at Majuba in 1881 ended with the Transvaal being given back to the Dutch by the British, so the Haggards returned to England to live in Ditchingham, Norfolk. Haggard studied law and was called to the bar in London in 1884, though his heart was not in it, and he started to write. His first book was Cetewayo and his White Numbers (1882), a denunciation of British South African policy that was not well-received. He next published Dawn (1884) to slightly better reception, enough for him to find encouragement to continue with the semi-autobiographical The Witch’s Head (1885), which would be the starting point for him to write from the heart.
With the release of Treasure Island in 1885, one of Haggard's brothers wagered that he could at least write something as good, and so it is said that Haggard wrote King Solomon’s Mines (1885) in six weeks. It was received with great critical acclaim, and he realized he had finally found his niche. She (1887) followed with the near-immortal Ayesha. Ayesha became a household name to whom Freud would refer in his The Interpretation of Dreams, and Jung would later also mention. Financially secure and settled back at Ditchingham with his family, Haggard would spend his days as a gentleman farmer and dictate his stories to his secretary in his study. His Viking romance Eric Brighteyes (1891) is dedicated to "Victoria, Empress Frederick of Germany." Haggard would also travel extensively through Europe, the Americas, Egypt, and South Africa. While in Mexico in 1891, Haggard's only son and progeny died suddenly in London. It broke Haggard's heart, and he would suffer grief and guilt over his loss for years.
Stemming from his interests in agriculture, Haggard produced some non-fiction books about rural England, including A Farmer's Year (1899), and wrote articles for the Daily Express on the harsh farming conditions in England and Wales. Rural Denmark and its Lessons (1911), about co-operative farming, was a result and a recommended model for England. In 1895, Haggard was appointed to a royal commission to investigate the Salvation Army labor colonies in the United States (though his ensuing report would be mostly ignored). He became widely known in literary circles and among politicians, becoming acquainted with many popular figures of the day, including the then-president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt. In May 1917, Haggard dedicated his book Finished (1917) to the President: "..in memory of certain hours wherein both of us found true refreshment and companionship amidst the terrible anxieties of the World's journey along that bloodstained road by which alone, so it is decreed, the pure Peak of Freedom must be scaled, I dedicate to you this tale telling of the events and experiences of my youth." Morning Star (1910) is dedicated to "Doctor Wallis Budge, Keeper of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, British Museum."
Haggard's stories and characters reflect some strong preconceptions of British colonialism, and he has been accused of anti-Semitism, but often he is most sympathetic to native Africans and Zulu culture. His exotic adventures with themes of spiritualism and antiquity resonated with his imperial audience. Haggard initiated many of the now-common themes of the lost civilization and lost continent genre, such as ancient magic, curses, and secret chambers. His protagonists are usually European, though many of his heroes are African, such as Ignosi, the rightful king of Kukuanaland in King Solomon’s Mines. Moon of Israel (1918), about ancient Egypt, is dedicated to "Sir Gaston Maspero, K.C.M.G., Director of the Cairo Museum." In 1919, Haggard was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
H. Rider Haggard died in a London nursing home at 3 Devonshire Terrace on May 14, 1925. His ashes are buried in the chancel of Ditchingham church. One of Haggard's daughters, L. R. Haggard, wrote a memoir of him, The Cloak that I Left, in 1951. Haggard's autobiography The Days of my Life in two volumes was published in 1926.
"And O you whose eyes shall fall upon these pages, see, they have been translated, and they have been printed, and here they lie before you - an undiscovered land wherein you are free to travel!" H. Rider Haggard, Cleopatra. (1889)
Biography written by C.D. Merriman for Jalic Inc. Copyright Jalic Inc 2005. All Rights Reserved.
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