Sir Henry Rider Haggard was born June 22, 1856 in Bradenham, Norfolk. In 1875 he was sent by his father to South Africa as an assistant secretary, and three years later became Registrar of the High Court in the Transvaal. Returning to England, Haggard began to write, and heavily influenced by the larger‐than‐life adventurers whom he met in colonial Africa, he created the iconic hunter‐adventurer Allan Quatermain. After a couple of unsuccessful novels, Haggard wrote King Solomon's Mines, considered to be the first Lost Race novel, and followed it with Allan Quatermain, She and its sequel, Ayesha. He also wrote about agricultural and social reform, became a staunch opponent of Bolshevism, and stood unsuccessfully for Parliament as a Conservative candidate. Haggard was knighted in 1919 and died on May 14, 1925 in Marylebone, London.