Robert Folkestone Williams

Born in London, Robert Folkestone Williams built an unusually wide-ranging career as a writer. Sources describe him as a novelist, poet, journalist, historian, biographer, magazine editor, and professor, and note that he first studied surgery before choosing literature instead.

He wrote both domestic and historical fiction, along with nonfiction and editorial work. His historical interests show up again and again in his books, including writing connected with Shakespeare, the English Civil War, and later Stuart and Georgian England.

The dates attached to Williams vary across reference sources, so I have avoided stating them too firmly here. What is consistent is the picture of a prolific nineteenth-century author who worked across many forms and left behind a large, varied body of writing.