{\b Sir H. (Henry) Rider Haggard}.

{\b Date of Birth}.: June 22, 1856

{\b Date of Death}.: May 14, 1925

{\b Works}

English novelist, best-known for his romantic adventure novels She 
(1887) and King Solomon's Mines (1885). His other novels, set in such 
exotic locations as Mexico, Africa and ancient Egypt, include Allan 
Quatermaine (1887), Cleopatra (1889), Nada the Lily (1892), Queen 
Sheba's Ring (1910), Marie (1912) and The Ivory Child (1916). He also 
wrote a number of non-fictional works, including A Farmer's Year 
(1889) and reports on English agricultural conditions in Rural England 
(1902) and those in South Africa in The Poor and the Land (1905). 
Cetywayo and his White Neighbours (1882) was a contemporary history 
of South Africa. His autobiography, entitled The Days of My Life, An 
Autobiography by Sir H.Rider Haggard, was published posthumously in 
1926. 

{\b Featured Works}.

'King Solomon's Mines'

{\b General Comment}.

Haggard was born at West Bradhenham Hall in Norfolk and educated at 
the nearby Ipswich grammar school. In 1875 he travelled to South Africa 
as secretary to the governor of Natal and later worked in the High Court 
of the Transvaal, before marrying a Norfolk heiress and returning to 
England to manage her estate. Back in England he studied law and went 
to the bar in 1884, but then gave up this career to pursue his literary 
interests.

His first two books, which were both romances, brought little in the way 
of success, but, after reading Stevenson's Treasure Island, he was inspired 
to write his own King Solomon's Mines (1885) which still today remains 
his best-known work. This was followed by a whole series of novels, 
including She (1887) which has since been made into a film.  

As the years went by, Haggard also became increasingly involved in 
governmental work and pressed his pen into the service of a number of 
agricultural and social causes. In 1905 he visited North America to study 
the Salvation Army's work there and in 1912 he became a member of the 
Dominions Royal Commission. For his work on this and other 
commissions he was knighted in 1912 and received his KBE in 1919.