author
C. F. (Charles Francis) Keary
1848–1917
A Victorian scholar and novelist whose work ranged from Norse history and comparative religion to psychologically rich fiction, he moved easily between the museum world and the literary one. Though never a household name, his later novels were admired enough to leave a trace on writers who came after him.
1 Audiobook
The Dawn of History: An Introduction to Pre-Historic Study
by C. F. (Charles Francis) Keary
About the author
Born in 1848, Charles Francis Keary was an English scholar, historian, numismatist, and author whose career joined serious research with imaginative writing. He studied at Marlborough College and Trinity College, Cambridge, and later worked in the British Museum's Department of Coins, where his scholarly interests took shape.
Keary wrote on subjects including early belief systems, Scandinavian history, and coinage, bringing a wide historical curiosity to his nonfiction. He also published novels and other literary work, and his fiction was noted for trying to portray life with unusual depth and realism rather than following easy Victorian formulas.
He died in 1917. Today he is remembered as a versatile late-Victorian man of letters: part museum scholar, part historian, and part novelist, with a body of work that reached from ancient worlds to the inner lives of modern characters.