Farjeon, Benjamin L.

English-Jewish novelist; born in London 1833; died there July 23, 1903; educated at private schools. He emigrated to New Zealand, where he entered upon a literary career and became manager and partial owner of the first daily newspaper in that colony. Turning to fiction, hepublished his first book, "Grif," in 1870, which attracted the notice of Dickens. Among his writings are "Joshua Marvel" (1871), "London's Heart," "Great Porter Square" (1884), "Set in a Silver Sea," "The Sacred Nugget," "The King of Noland," "Something Occurred," "A Secret Inheritance," "The House of White Shadows," "The Betrayal of John Fordham," "Samuel Boyd of Catchpole Square," and "The Mesmerists." "Solomon Isaacs" (1877), "Aaron the Jew," "Miriam Rozella," and "Pride of Race" deal sympathetically with Jewish scenes and characters.