F. W. (Frederic William) Farrar

Born in Bombay on August 7, 1831, Frederic William Farrar was educated in England and went on to build a varied career as a teacher, clergyman, scholar, and writer. He studied at King’s College London and Trinity College, Cambridge, and later taught at Harrow, where his experience with school life helped shape some of his best-known writing.

Farrar became widely read through both fiction and religious nonfiction. Many readers remember him for Eric; or, Little by Little, a moral tale of schoolboy life that found a large audience in Victorian Britain. He also wrote on the life of Christ, the early church, biblical interpretation, and language, combining serious religious interests with a style meant for general readers rather than specialists alone.

Alongside his writing, he rose to important positions in the Church of England, serving as Canon of Westminster, Archdeacon of Westminster, and finally Dean of Canterbury from 1895 until his death on March 22, 1903. That mix of public ministry, scholarship, and storytelling helps explain why his books continued to circulate so widely long after his own time.