Sir Henry Rider Haggard was born in Norfolk, England in 1856. His parents were wealthy landowners with both Jewish and Indian ancestors, a fact which may have contributed to Haggard’s own more liberal views toward racial and religious differences. Alone among his brothers (Haggard was one of eight children), Haggard was not given a private school education. He took up the study of law but soon dropped it in order to take a secretarial position for the governor of Natal in South Africa. He remained in Africa over five years, an experience which shows in many of his novels set on that so-called “Dark Continent.”
Haggard returned to England and completed his studies, but still could not...
