3-052-378 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The late Mr. Hepworth Dixon, 1880. Engraving from a photograph by Elliott and Fry. '...this accomplished and industrious author of many popular books...was born at Manchester in 1821, and began life as a cotton factory hand, but his love of reading and writing, without much help of schools and colleges, prompted him to attain literary knowledge and skill in a high degree. He...[wrote] "The Literature of the Lower Orders," furnished to the Daily News...He was appointed a deputy commissioner to organise local committees in the North of England for the Great Exhibition of 1851. Next year he made a tour of Europe, visiting Italy and Spain, and travelling through Germany and Hungary as far as Belgrade. On his return, in 1853, he became chief editor of the Athenaeum...In 1864 he made a journey through Turkey in Europe, Asia Minor, Palestine, and Egypt, the literary result of which was the publication, in the following year, of the ''Holy Land," in two volumes. On his return from Syria he assisted in founding the Palestine Exploration Fund. He spent the summer and autumn of 1866 in travelling through the United States...After his return from America he wrote "White Conquest,'' two vols., and two novels named "Diana, "Lady Lisle" and "Ruby Gray".' From "Illustrated London News", 1880.