Walter Besant (1836-1901)

Walter Besant was primarily a novelist who not only made full use of the popular publishing formats of the Nineteenth Century, but also campaigned for authorial rights and was one of the earliest authors to employ a professional literary agent. His novels demonstrate a keen sense of place and this comes across in his various London histories too.
Like Gladstone, he was a philanthropist and dedicated himself to social reform. He was knighted in 1895.   Besant, W. Letter to J. Cotter Morison, [n.d.] Manuscript Album, 89


Special Collections has thirty-one works by Walter Besant, held in the 19th Century and 19th Century Novels collections.)