author
Henry Festing Jones
1851–1928
Best remembered as Samuel Butler’s close friend and biographer, this English writer moved between law, travel, music, and literature with unusual ease. His books helped preserve Butler’s life and work, while his own memoirs and travel writing show a curious, observant mind.
4 Audiobooks
Samuel Butler: A Sketch
by Henry Festing Jones
Diversions in Sicily
by Henry Festing Jones
The Samuel Butler Collection at Saint John's College, Cambridge A Catalogue and a Commentary
by Henry Festing Jones, A. T. (Augustus Theodore) Bartholomew
Castellinaria, and Other Sicilian Diversions
by Henry Festing Jones
About the author
Born on January 30, 1851, Henry Festing Jones was an English solicitor and writer who studied at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, then qualified in law before building a literary career. He is most often remembered for his long friendship with Samuel Butler and for the major role he played in shaping Butler’s posthumous reputation.
Jones edited and published several works connected with Butler, including The Note-Books of Samuel Butler, and later wrote the two-volume Samuel Butler, Author of Erewhon (1835–1902): A Memoir. That biography won the inaugural James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography, a sign of how highly it was regarded.
He also wrote in his own right, including travel books such as Diversions in Sicily and memoirs such as Old Memories. Jones died on October 23, 1928, leaving behind a body of work that links Victorian literary friendship, biography, and personal recollection.