H. Rider Haggard

H. Rider Haggard (1856-1925), English novelist, colonial administrator, and agriculturist. Henry Rider Haggard was born in Norfolk. At the age of 19 he went to South Africa and later served in the Transvaal as a master of the high court. Returning to England in 1881, Haggard devoted most of his time to agriculture, on his estate in Norfolk, and to writing novels. His King Solomon's Mines (1885) was an immediate success; its story, suggested by the ruins at Zimbabwe, dealt with the adventures of an English explorer among remote tribes. The characters who appeared in the book were featured in several others, including She (1887), Allan Quatermain (1887), and Ayesha, or the Return of She (1905). In addition to writing more than 40 novels, Haggard was an adviser to the British government on agriculture.