Mackenzie Bell

Mackenzie Bell (1856-1930), from The Magazine of Poetry, 1890. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Mackenzie Bell
Born	Henry Thomas Mackenzie Bell March 2 1856(1856-Template:MONTHNUMBER-02) Liverpool, England
Died	December 13 1930(1930-Template:MONTHNUMBER-13) (aged 74) London, England
Occupation	Writer, poet, critic, journalist, lecturer
Nationality	English
Genres	fiction, poetry, non-fiction, biographies, essay, literary criticism
Notable work(s)	A Forgotten Genius: Charles Whitehead, Christina Rossetti: A Biographical and Critical Study

Henry Thomas Mackenzie Bell (2 March 1856 - 13 December 1930) was an English poet and literary critic.

Life

Overview

Bell was a writer for many Victorian era publications, most especially the London Academy, and published several volumes of poetry between 1879 and 1893.

A noted world traveler, he was acquainted with many literary figures in Victorian Britain and abroad. He was a personal friend of Christina Rossetti and authored her biography, as well as those of fellow English poets Algernon Swinburne and Charles Whitehead, and published critical studies of their literary work. He also contributed biographies to the Dictionary of National Biography.

A staunch Liberal Imperialist, Bell was a charter member of W.E. Forster's Imperial Federation Committee, lectured for the Social and Political Education League and 4 times contested St George Hanover Square on behalf of the Liberal Party. He was also a member of the Athenaeum Club for many years.

Youth and education

Bell was born at 8 Falconer Square, Liverpool, the youngest child of Margaret (Mackenzie) and merchant Thomas Bell. His uncle was the Scottish judge and Solicitor-General for Scotland, Lord Thomas Mackenzie.

Bell suffered from poor health as a child, a fall resulting from a careless nurse having caused a minor paralytic stroke, and he was educated privately.

Though he was trained in preparation for a career in law at Cambridge University, Bell instead chose to study abroad and lived in Portugal, Spain, Italy, France, and Madeira. During his years as a world traveler, he became close friends with Christina Rossetti, and later wrote her biography after her death.

Career

While still a young man, Bell published his earliest poetry books The Keeping of the Vow, and other verses (1879), Verses of Varied Life (1882), and Old Year Leaves (1883).

In 1884, he returned to Great Britain and settled in Ealing, London, as a professional writer. That same year, he published a well-received biography on Charles Whitehead entitled A Forgotten Genius. He gained a staff position on the London Academy and eventually became its leading literary critic.

Bell went on to become a contributor of articles, poems and letters to various Victorian era publications including The Fortnightly Review, The Pall Mall Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, The Athenaeum, The Speaker, The Literary World, Temple Bar, The Lady's Realm, Black and White and The Academy. He also wrote articles for the Dictionary of National Biography, The Poets and the Poetry of the Century and the Savage Club Papers.

During the 1890s, he published a new series of poetry collections: Spring's Immortality, and other poems (1893), Pictures of Travel, and other poems (1898), and Collected Poems (1901). 4 years after the death of Rossetti, he published her biography Christina Rossetti: A Biographical and Critical Study (1898).

Bell was also active politically during this time as a Liberal Imperialist. He was a charter member of W.E. Forster's Imperial Federation Committee, lectured for the Social and Political Education League and on 4 occasions contested St George Hanover Square (or the London County Council) on behalf of the Liberal Party. For several years, he was also a member of the London Athenaeum Club.

Bell died at his Orme Square home in Bayswater, London.

Publications

Poetry

• The Keeping of the Vow, and other verses. London: E. Stock, 1879.
• Verses of Varied Life. London: E. Stock, 1882.
• Old Year Leaves; being old verses, revised. London: E. Stock, 1883; London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1886.
• Spring's Immortality, and other poems. London: Ward, Lock, & Bowden, 1893.
• Pictures of Travel, and other poems. London: Hurst & Blackett, 1898.
• The Taking o' the Flag, and other recitations. London: T. Burleigh, 1900.
• Collected Poems. London: T. Burleigh, 1901.
• Collected Poems. London: F.R. Henderson, 1904.
• School Recitations: Poems by Mackenzie Bell (edited by C. Lockington). London: 1908.
• Poems. London: J. Clarke, 1909.
• Poems of Nature. London: J. Clarke / Kingsgate Press, 1910.
• The Heart's Summer, and other poems. London: Edward Nister, 1913.
• Holy Quietude, and other poems. London: Edward Nister, 1913.
• Poetical Pictures of the Great War. London: Kingsgate Press, 1915.
• Poetical Pictures of the Great War: Second series. London: Kingsgate Press, 1916.
• Selected Poems. London: G. Harrap, 1921.

Non-fiction

• A Forgotten Genius, Charles Whitehead: A critical monograph. London: E. Stock, 1884
  • revised & expanded as A Forgotten Genius: Charles Whitehead.London, New York, & Melbourne: Ward, Lock & Bowden, 1894.
• Christina Rossetti: A biographical and critical study. London: Hurst & Blackett, 1898; Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1898; New York: Haskell House, 1971.
• Foreword to Poetical Tributes to the Memory of Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria (edited by C.F. Forshaw). London : Swan Sonnenshein, 1901.
• Introduction to Dante Gabriel Rossetti, The Ballad of Jan van Hunks (illustrated by Monro S. Orr). London G.G. Harrap, 1932.

Collected editions

• A Mackenzie Bell Treasury (edited by Albert Broadbent). Manchester, UK: 1901.

Edited

• Half-Hours with Representative Novelists of the Nineteenth Century. London: Routledge, 1927
  • published in U.S. as Representative Novelists of the Nineteenth Century; being passages from their works with brief biographies and introductions and a critical essay. New York: L. MacVeagh / Dial Press, 1927.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

Prose by Bell

1. Augusta Webster - Critical introduction

See also

• List of British poets

External links

Poems

• "Spring's Immortality"
• Bell in A Victorian Anthology: "Spring's Immortality," "At the Grave of Dante Gabriel Rossetti," "At Stratford-on-Avon"