Haggard, H(enry) Rider (1856–1925)

English novelist. He used his experience in the South African colonial service in his romantic adventure tales, including King Solomon's Mines (1885) and She (1887), the best of which also illuminate African traditions and mythology. He also published Rural England (1902).

His first book, Cetewayo and his White Neighbours, appeared in 1882. In 1884 he published Dawn, the first of his novels, and followed it with others, most of which were very successful. The most popular was King Solomon's Mines; others include Jess (1887), Allan Quatermain (1887), and The World's Desire (1890), written with Andrew Lang. He was knighted in 1912.

Haggard was born at Bradenham Hall, Norfolk. At 19 years of age he went to South Africa, where he held colonial service posts in Natal and the Transvaal from 1875–79 before returning to England. He studied law while managing his wife's estates in Norfolk, and became a barrister in 1884. He was deeply interested in agricultural and rural questions; Rural England (1902) was a valuable study, and in 1905 he published a commissioned report, The Poor and the Land, on Salvation Army settlements in the USA, proposing a scheme for national land settlements.