William Brighty Rands was born on 24 December 1823, in Chelsea, then a district on the western edge of London and already a place where commerce, domestic life, artistic ambition, and metropolitan poverty met in close quarters. He died on 23 April 1882, having lived only fifty-eight years, and his name is now far less familiar than the names of several Victorian writers whose work has dated more severely. Yet Rands o…
“Ugly things made me ache all over — a public house, for instance, dirt, a black-eye, a butcher's shop — indeed, almost everything disgusted me, except skies, trees, women and children, and books.”
Neighbourhood:
Children's Verse, Light Verse Poets, Nature Poets, Victorian Poets
Emotional landscape: Joy, Wonder, Irony
In the pantheon of Victorian literature, where giants like Tennyson and Browning cast long shadows, there existed quieter voices whose contributions to the literary landscape were no less profound for being more intimate in scope. William Canton, born on a Chinese island to colonial parents and destined to become one of Britain's most beloved children's authors, represents one such voice—a writer whose life spanned c…
“I never could understand why men should be so insanely set on their first-born being a boy. This of ours, I am glad to say, is a girl. I should have been pleased either way, but as a matter of fact I wanted a girl. I don’t know why, but somehow with a girl one feels that one has provided against the disillusionment, the discomfort, the homelessness of old age and of mental and physical decrepitude.”
Neighbourhood:
Devotional Poets, Hymn Writers, Victorian Poets
Emotional landscape: Wonder, Spirituality, Tenderness
