BLACKMORE, RICHARD DODDRIDGE

born June 7, 1825, Longworth, Berkshire, Eng. died Jan. 20, 1900, Teddington English Victorian novelist whose novel Lorna Doone (1869) won a secure place among English historical romances. Educated at Blundell's School, Tiverton, and at Exeter College, Oxford, Blackmore was called to the bar but withdrew because of ill health. He married in 1852 and taught classics for five years. Then, upon receiving a legacy, he bought a property at Teddington and settled down to fruit growing and novel writing. After publishing some poems, Blackmore produced Clara Vaughan, a first and fairly successful novel, in 1864 and Cradock Nowell in 1866. Lorna Doone (1869) was his third. Its popularity grew slowly, until the qualities of this imaginative and exciting tale of Exmoor eventually brought it fame. Blackmore himself, a shy, reserved, but kindly man who was prouder of his peach orchard than of his 14 novels, preferred his Maid of Sker (1872).