RIDER HAGGARD.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1982, 29 October 1888, Page 3

RIDER HAGGARD.

* la the domain of literature there 1b scarcely an equal to the meteoric and bewildering sncceis of Rider Haggard. He was born m 1856, at Bradenham Hbll, Norfolk, and was destlnod by his parents deoendantß of the good old Norfolk families — for foreign service. For tone lod him to iccepi a post on the Staff of Sir Henry Bulwer, In South Afrloa ; be accompanied Sir Theophllaa Shepstone m Transvaal, and At the age of twenty-one was appointed Maater of the High Ceurt there. Two years later, he returned home, and married m 1880 the only daughter of the late Major Margiton, of Ditohingbam House Norfolk, where he resides when not m London. With hlB wife he subsequently returned to the Transvaal, and qniokly found his party driven into laager by the triumphant Boeis. .Disgusted with the ohange of affairs m that coudtry, Rider Haggard once more settled In London, was called to the bar, and is now practising as a barrial er. His firßt literary ventures did not meet with much success, and he passed through the trials usntl with unknown authors m his early efforts to secure publishers for "Gatewayo and his White Neighbors," " Dawn." aud " The Witch's Head." "King Solomon's Mines," written ac a boy's book, was an immediate success, and ran out of print m a few days. Since then his name and books hare become "familiar to ouc ears us household words." Thirty thousand copies of " She " were sold m a month, and each fresh work from his pen Beems to create greater uensation. Personally, Rider Haggard has much to recommend him, and he is as modest and amiable as ho is gifted. He objects to being lionised, and carries his honors with an ease and simplicity which win him friends wherever he goo 3. Without beiDg handsome, he is afresh, comely-looking Englishman, with fair hair and frank blue eyes He seldom appears m London, preferring to pass his dayg m the quiet seclusion of his native Norfolk. _____