Dictionary.net

An English poet, novelist, and essayist; born at Ilfracombe, Aug. 1, 1858. His poetry is strong in matter and finished in form. Some of his novels are marked by a play of gloomy fancy not unlike Hawthorne's. The striking story "A Dead Man's Diary", published anonymously, soon reached a fourth edition. Two others, "Stranger than Fiction" (1893) and "Dead Faces" (1894), were notable. He has shown himself to be also an excellent critic. Some of his best works are "The Child, the Wise Man, and the Devil"; "Wise Men and a Fool".