A C (Arthur Christopher) Benson (1862-1925) was one of six children of Edward White Benson, a late nineteenth_century Archbishop of Canterbury. An uncle of the family was philosopher Henry Sidgwick. The Benson family were exceptionally literate and accomplished, but their history was somewhat tragic. A son and daughter died young, and another daughter, as well as A C himself, suffered badly from a mental condition that was probably manic-depressive psychosis, which they had inherited from their father. None of the children ever married.
Despite his illness, A C was a distinguished academic and a most prolific author. He was associated with Eton College and Magdalene College of Cambridge University. His poems and volumes of essays, such as From a College Window, were famous in his day, and he left one of the longest diaries ever written, some four million words.
Today he is best remembered as the author of the words to one of Britain's best_loved patriotic songs, Land of Hope and Glory, and as a brother to novelist E.F. Benson.
External link
Biographical site (http://eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/display/poet374.html)
Hugh Benson was lauded in his own day as one of the leading figures in English literature, yet today he is almost completely forgotten outside Catholic circles and is sadly neglected even among Catholics.
Benson was the youngest son of E. Benson, Archbishop of Canterbury, who, as head of the Anglican Church, was the upholder of the Protestant establishment in England.
A.C. Benson, his eldest brother, was master of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and built a reputation as a fine biographer, diarist, and literary critic, writing acclaimed studies of Rossetti, Fitzgerald, Pater, Tennyson, and Ruskin.
Arthur Christopher Benson (24 April 1862 – 17 June 1925) was one of six children of Edward White Benson, a late nineteenth-century Archbishop of Canterbury.
A son and daughter died young, and another daughter, as well as A C himself, suffered badly from a mental condition that was probably manic-depressive psychosis, which they had inherited from their father.
Despite his illness, A C was a distinguished academic and a most prolific author.
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