author
Lonsdale Ragg
1866–1945
An Anglican clergyman with a wide range of interests, he wrote on Christian thought, Dante, Venice, and even trees. His life took him far beyond England, and that breadth shows in the curiosity and variety of his books.
1 Audiobook
Dante Alighieri, Apostle of Freedom: War-time and Peace-time Essays
by Lonsdale Ragg
About the author
Born in Wellington, Shropshire, on 23 October 1866, Lonsdale Ragg was educated at Adams' Grammar School, Christ Church, Oxford, and Ripon College Cuddesdon. He was ordained in 1889 and went on to serve as an Anglican priest in a career that included chaplaincies around the Mediterranean as well as senior church work connected with Gibraltar.
Ragg wrote across several fields rather than staying in a single lane. Alongside religious books and studies of Christianity, he published works on Dante, Venice, and Italian culture, and he also became known for his interest in trees and forestry. That mix of faith, travel, scholarship, and close observation gives his writing an unusually varied character.
He died in Bath on 31 July 1945. Contemporary accounts remembered him not only as a churchman and author, but also as someone who encouraged the study of forestry and botany, adding another dimension to an already wide-ranging life.