WILLIAMSON, HENRY

born Dec. 1, 1895, Bedfordshire, Eng. died Aug. 13, 1977, Berkshire English novelist who is known for his sensitive but unsentimental handling of nature themes. After World War I service, Williamson became a journalist in London, but he disliked city life and moved to England's West Country. He tried farming and ultimately settled at Georgeham, in Devon. He first came to notice as a writer with four novels written between 1921 and 1928 and published under the title of The Flax of Dream (1936). Tarka the Otter (1927), however, was the book that established his reputation and that was awarded the Hawthornden Prize in 1928. Its nonhuman hero was presented without any of the mawkish sentiment that mars many animal stories. Williamson later produced another ambitious series of novels under the general title of A Chronicle of Ancient Sunlight (195169).