A. C. Benson
Arthur Christopher Benson (24 April 1862 – 17 June 1925) was an English essayist, poet, and author and the 28th Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge.
Benson was one of six children of Edward White Benson (Archbishop of Canterbury, 1882–96) and his lesbian wife Mary, sister of the philosopher Henry Sidgwick. The Benson family was exceptionally literate and accomplished, but their history was somewhat tragic. A son and daughter died young; and another daughter, as well as Arthur himself, suffered badly from a mental condition that was probably manic-depressive psychosis, which they had inherited from their father. None of the children ever married. Arthur was homosexual, though his diaries suggest he had few or no sexual relationships.[1]
Despite his illness, Arthur was a distinguished academic and a most prolific author. He was educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge.[2] From 1885 to 1903 he taught at Eton, returning to Cambridge to lecture in English literature for Magdalene College. From 1915 to 1925, he was Master of Magdalene. From 1906, he was a governor of Gresham's School.[3]
His poems and volumes of essays, such as From a College Window, and The Upton Letters (essays in the formn of letters) were famous in his day; and he left one of the longest diaries ever written, some four million words. Today, he is best remembered as the author of the words to one of Britain's best-loved patriotic songs, Land of Hope and Glory, and as a brother to novelists E. F. Benson and Robert Hugh Benson, and to Egyptologist Margaret Benson.
Like his two brothers Edward Fredric (E.F.) and Robert Hugh (R.H.), A.C. Benson was also noted as an author of ghost stories. The bulk of his published ghost stories in the two volumes The Hill of Trouble (1903) and The Isles of Sunset (1904) were written as moral allegories for his pupils. After Arthur's death, Fred Benson found a collection of unpublished ghost stories by Arthur. He put two of them into a book, Basil Netherby (1927); the title story ws renamed "House at Treheale" and the volume was completed by the long "The Uttermost Farthing". The fate of the rest of the stories is unknown. The collection Paul the Minstrel and Other Stories (1911; reprint 1977, collects the entire contents of The Hill of Troubles and The Isles of Sunset. [4] Nine of Arthur's ghost stories are included in David Stuart Davies (ed) The Temple of Death: The Ghost Stories of A.C. & R.H. Benson (Wordsworth, 2007) together with seven by his brother Robert Hugh (R.H.) Benson.
A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he founded in 1916 the Benson Medal to be awarded ‘in respect of meritorious works in poetry, fiction, history and belles lettres’ [5]
He is buried at the Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground in Cambridge.
[edit] References
- ^ "Selected poetry of Arthur Christopher Benson, 1862 - 1925". Representative Poetry Online. University of Toronto. http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poet/374.html. Retrieved 19 July 2009.
- ^ Venn, J.; Venn, J. A., eds. (1922–1958). "Benson, Arthur Christopher". Alumni Cantabrigienses (10 vols) (online ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- ^ The Times newspaper, Oct 22, 1906, p. 6, col. C
- ^ Jack Sullivan (ed). The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural. NY: Viking Penguin, 1986, p.30
- ^ "The Benson Medal". The Royal Society of Literature. http://www.rslit.org/content/benson. Retrieved 11 August 2010.
- Tuck, Donald H. (1974). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Chicago: Advent. pp. 39. ISBN 0-911682-20-1.
- Wilson, Keith. "A. C. Benson," in Robert Beum, ed., Dictionary of Literary Biography: British Essayists, 1880-1960. Detroit: Gale, 1990, 192-204.
[edit] External links
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: A. C. Benson |
Works written by or about Arthur Christopher Benson at Wikisource- Essays by Arthur Benson at Quotidiana.org
- Representative Poetry Online
- Works by A. C. Benson at Project Gutenberg
- Picture of grave of A. C. Benson, Ascension Parish Burial Ground, Huntingdon Road, Cambridge
- A.C. Benson at Find-A-Grave
- A. C. Benson at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
| Academic offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Stuart Alexander Donaldson |
Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge 1915–1925 |
Succeeded by Allen Beville Ramsay |
