Benjamin Leopold Farjeon was born in London, May 12, 1838, and died at Hampstead, July 23, 1903. He was educated at a private school for Jewish boys, but at the age of fourteen began working on the Nonconformist. Three years later he went to the Australian gold fields, and from there to New Zealand, where he wrote his first novel, "Grif," which he also dramatized. He became assistant editor and part proprietor of the Otago Daily Times, of Dunedin, but returned to England to devote himself to writing. He published many novels, but his first remained his best. "Bread and Cheese Kisses" appeared as a serial in Harper's Weekly in 1873, and in book form in London the next year. In 1877 he was married to Margaret, daughter of Joseph Jefferson, and by her had four sons and one daughter.

REFERENCES: A woodcut portrait appears in Review of Reviews, American edition, II, 1890, 610; Allibone, Supplement, lists his novels up to 1888; Kunitz and Haycraft, British Authors, 217; Victoria Magazine, XXXII, 1878-79, 1881; Publishers' Weekly, LXIV, 1903, 211.

Fireside Library. No. 106
Waverley Library (quarto). Nos. 93, 104, 109, 121, 123