author
Henry Arthur Bright
1830–1884
A Liverpool writer and merchant with a real gift for warm, reflective nature writing, he is best known for A Year in a Lancashire Garden. His life also crossed paths with Nathaniel Hawthorne, adding a literary spark to his story.
2 Audiobooks
The English Flower Garden with illustrative notes
by Henry Arthur Bright
A Year in a Lancashire Garden Second Edition
by Henry Arthur Bright
About the author
Henry Arthur Bright was an English merchant and author born in Liverpool on February 9, 1830. He was educated at Rugby School and studied at Trinity College, Cambridge; because he was a Unitarian, he could not take his degree until 1856, after the rules changed for dissenters.
Alongside work in the family business, he built a strong literary life. He is especially remembered for A Year in a Lancashire Garden (1879), a book of seasonal garden reflections that blends observation, memory, and an easy affection for the natural world. Surviving archival records also suggest how wide his circle was, with thousands of letters from friends, relatives, and notable correspondents.
Bright is often noted for his friendship with Nathaniel Hawthorne. They met in Concord, Massachusetts, in 1852, renewed the friendship when Hawthorne was U.S. consul in Liverpool, and even toured Wales together in 1854. Bright died in Liverpool on May 5, 1884.