Benjamin Farjeon
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Benjamin Leopold Farjeon (12 May 1838, London, England-23 July 1903 in Hampstead, England) was an English playwright, printer, journalist, and author, known for his huge output.
He was the son of Dinah Levy and Jacob Farjeon, orthodox Jews. He was raised in Whitechapel. He had no formal secular education. At fourteen, he entered the office of the Nonconformist newspaper to learn the printing trade. At the age of about sixteen he emigrated to Australia. During the voyage he was moved from steerage to cabin class because he had produced some numbers of a ship newspaper, the Ocean Record.
After working as a gold miner in Victoria, Farjeon went to New Zealand to dig gold there. He settled at Dunedin, working as a journalist for Julius Vogel. He began writing noivels and plays. He attracted the attention of Charles Dickens. In 1868 he returned to England and lived in the Adelphi. Over the next thirty-five years he produced nearly sixty novels.
He was the father of J. Jefferson Farjeon, Eleanor Farjeon, Herbert Farjeon, and Harry Farjeon and the husband of Margaret Jane Jefferson, whom he married on 6 June 1877. Many of his works were illustrated by his long-time friend Nicholas Chevalier.
[edit] Selected Bibliography
- Shadows on the Snow (1865)
- Grif: a Story of Colonial Life (1866)
- Jessie Trim (1870)
- Blade-o'-Grass (1871)
- Joshua Marvel (1871)
- The Duchess of Rosemary Lane (1876)
- At the Sign of the Silver Flagon (1880)
- Great Porter Square: A Mystery (1884)
- The Mystery of M. Felix (1890)
- The Last Tenant (1893)
[edit] References
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
- Bleiler, Everett (1948). The Checklist of Fantastic Literature. Chicago: Shasta Publishers, 112.
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