R.D. Blackmore Biography

English Novelist and Poet, Famous for Lorna Doone

Feb 23, 2009
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R.D. Blackmore, English Novelist and Poet - Wikimedia Commons

Brief biography and works of R.D. Blackmore, 19th century's English novelist and poet.

R.D. Blackmore is famous for his novel Lorna Doone, and mainly remembered for this romantic adventure classic. He wrote more than a dozen novels that made him an important writer of the English countryside.

Lorna Doone became one of Britain's most popular books in the second half of the 1800s. It is still in demand today, having been made into a film, a television series, and a comic illustration.

Early Life of R.D. Blackmore

Richard Doddridge Blackmore, popularly known as R.D. Blackmore, was born on January 7, 1825 in a rural village in England's south. His father was a clergyman. He was few months old when his mother died. His father sent him to live with an aunt in a remote area of England in the southwest.

As a child he was bullied at school, and he did not have good health, but did well when he studied classical literature at Oxford University, graduating at the age of twenty-two. Two years later, Blackmore started studying law in London. Although he qualified to practice as a lawyer, his poor health prevented him from doing so. Instead, he turned to teaching.

At 32, a stroke of fortune changed his life. A well-off uncle left him enough money and he was able to purchase a farm near London. The remaining years of his life, Blackmore devoted himself to writing fiction and growing fruit.

Lorna Doone, a Romantic Adventure

Blackmore's famous book, Lorna Doone, was only his fourth published work. It came out only when he was already 44. This novel, said to be his masterpiece and very much equated to him almost as if it's the only book he was written, is a tale of bandits, highwaymen, murder and smuggling. It is also a tale of romance, a love full of twists and turns. It was set in the late 1600s.

The story of Lorna is based on the legend of the Doone family who were outlawed as they terrorized the remote landscape of moors that Blackmore knew as a child. The hero, John Ridd, whose father is killed by a Doone, later falls in love with Lorna, a young girl the Doones have abducted. The successful, unique mix of humour and poetic descriptions that Blackmore exhibited in this famous novel, he never achieved again. He died at the age of 74, January 20, 1900, two weeks after his birthday.