Blue Plaque Trail:

Rider Haggard

The wonderfully-named Sir Henry Rider Haggard was a popular author of the British Empire, producing many of the Victorian period’s most exciting ‘Boy’s Own’ style adventure stories which were read avidly by an audience of both children and adults.

Very much a product of his times, his brand of daring exploits and high adventure in colonial Africa wouldn’t pass today’s politically correct muster but all the same many are still very readable and some - most notably King Solomon’s Mines - remain popular to this day. Given the climate of his times and the output of many of his contemporaries, Haggard’s writing shows a surprising degree of sympathy with the native populations of the lands in which his novels are set, and although the heroes of his books are invariably rather stereotypical colonial European adventurers, where native characters are featured they often show noble and heroic traits. Although his reputation at the time was that of an upstanding member of the Victorian establishment and an exemplary servant of the British Empire, he was a more complex character than this might suggest and his sense of propriety meant he was forced to keep some parts of his life a secret…

Born in Norfolk in 1856, the eighth of ten children, Henry Rider Haggard was the son of William Meybohm Rider Haggard, barrister and country squire, and Ella Doveton, amateur writer and poet. A daydreamer by nature, his father considered him unlikely to amount to much and for this reason he was sent to a middling London day-school rather than a good public school like his more academic brothers. On leaving, he once again lived down to his father’s expectations by failing his army entrance exam. He then began to cram for the civil service entrance exams, but in 1875 his father, most likely considering him headed for failure yet again, used his contacts to find him an unpaid post as a secretary to Sir Henry Bulwer, the lieutenant-governor of the Natal province (now part of South Africa).

Before leaving for Natal, Haggard had fallen madly in love with a young woman named Lilith Jackson, whom he planned to marry on his return. But, frustrated with his foolish son for once again throwing away his opportunities, his father forbade this, ordering him to remain in Africa until his career was established. And in the following years Haggard did indeed develop a moderately successful career, becoming Registrar of the High Court in Transvaal in 1878. Although he had been brought up to believe in the superiority of European culture and the Christian religion, during his time in Africa Haggard’s fascination with the Zulu culture grew and he especially admired the prowess of their warriors.

In 1879, shortly before he returned to England, Haggard discovered that Lilith had married another man, and so in 1880 he married Mariana Margiston, a Norfolk heiress and friend of his sister. For a short while they lived on Haggard’s ostrich farm on the Transvaal but when the province was ceded to the Dutch they returned to England where they eventually had four children: a son (Jock, who tragically died from measles aged 10) and three daughters. During this time Haggard studied law but despite being admitted to the bar in 1884 he showed little interest in this profession and, ever the daydreamer, concentrated his efforts on fulfilling his dream of becoming a published author.

His first three books failed to ignite much interest, but when Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island was published in 1883, Haggard bet his brother five shillings that he could write a better story and six weeks later he had produced King Solomon's Mines (1885), about a group of treasure hunters searching for a legendary diamond mine in darkest Africa. This is the book that made him famous and, once he had found it, Haggard showed no inclination to change his winning adventure-story formula, publishing many other books in a similar vein throughout his prolific writing career, including She (1887), Allan Quatermain (1887) and Eric Bright Eyes (1891).

As well as writing, over the course of his life Haggard stood (unsuccessfully) as an MP for the Conservative party, became heavily involved in agricultural reform, was recognised as an expert on social conditions, and became a member of several Commissions on land use, work that took him on many trips to the British colonies and dominions. In recognition of these contributions, in 1912 Haggard was knighted for his services to the Empire. In 1918 he came to live at North Lodge on Maze Hill, St Leonards-on-Sea, which remained his home until 1923. The house, which was originally built as a toll-gate, spans the road, and the room directly above the roadway was Haggard’s study. While living here he wrote and published a number of stories and in 1919 was created Knight Commander of the British Empire. During this time he was friendly with another famous Sussex inhabitant and author, Rudyard Kipling, and the pair would often meet to discuss writing.

And his dark secret? This was well-kept for almost 100 years until the 1983 publication of Haggard's biography by D. S. Higgins. It seems that when Haggard was already an established novelist he was contacted by his former love, Lilith Jackson. She had been deserted by her husband, who had left her penniless and infected with syphilis. Still fascinated by the lost love of his youth, Haggard seems to have rekindled some kind of secret relationship with her and paid her medical bills for a number of years until the disease eventually killed her. Haggard himself died in London in 1925, leaving four completed novels for posthumous publication.

Few of Haggard’s many books are widely read today, though he retains a small but enthusiastic following and King Solomon’s Mines has never been out of print – in 1985 it was made into the successful Hollywood film of the same name, akin to Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, which was itself inspired by one of Haggard’s storybook heroes, Allan Quatermain. Both Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung have cited Haggard’s works and characters in their researches in psychology. The ‘Lost World’ genre, originated by Haggard, in which the journey into a primeval, dark and unexplored region provides a metaphor for a journey into the soul, has inspired a range of popular literature ranging from Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan books and Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, to H P Lovecraft’s Cthulhu horror-mythology.