Arthur Mee

:"See also Arthur Butler Phillips Mee, noted astronomer and journalist.

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Arthur Mee (July 21 1875 - May 27 1943) was a British writer, journalist and educator. He is best known for "The Children's Encyclopedia" and "The King's England". He also produced other works, usually with a patriotic tone, especially on the subjects of history or the countryside.

Biography

He was born on July 21 1875, at Stapleford near Nottingham, England, to a modest family. As a boy he earned money from reading the reports of Parliament to a local blind man. He left school at 14 to join a local newspaper, where he became an editor by age 20. He contributed many non-fiction articles to magazines and joined the staff of "The Daily Mail" in 1898. He was made literary editor five years later.

After publishing several books, in 1908 he began work on "The Children's Encyclopedia", which came out as a fortnightly magazine. The series was published and bound in eight volumes soon afterwards, and later expanded to ten volumes. After the success of "The Children's Encyclopedia", he started the "Self-Educator", and then the first newspaper published for children, the weekly "The Children's Newspaper", which was published until 1965.

Although he made money from these works, he did not receive a fair share, according to his biographer John Hammerton. He had a large house built overlooking the hills near Eynsford in Kent. Its development from design to the final building was depicted in "The Children's Encyclopedia".

Mee had one child, but, despite his work, declared that he had no particular affinity with children. His works for them suggest that his interest was in trying to encourage the raising of a generation of patriotic and moral citizens. He came from a Baptist upbringing, and supported the temperance movement.

He died in London and his books continued to be published after his death, most noticeably "The King's England", a guide to the counties of England, which is being progressively republished. Mee's works were successful abroad. His "Encyclopedia" was translated into Chinese and sold well in the United States

ee also

* List of children's non-fiction writers

Bibliographic References

*Sir John Hammerton (1946) "Child of Wonder: An Intimate Biography of Arthur Mee"
* "Enchanted Land: Half-a-Million Miles in the King's England", Introductory Volume to the UK series known as "The King's England" - (A New Domesday Book of 10,000 Towns and Villages) [ Details of all the 41 titles obtained from a copy of "The King's England" series, originally published by Hodder and Stoughton, London, which were illustrated with 10,000 places and 6,000 photographs commencing about 1936 ]

Further reading

* Maisie Robson, biography of Mee

External links

*gutenberg author|id=Arthur_Mee|name=Arthur Mee
* [http://www.kingsengland.com/amdoe.htm Further reading]
* [http://wonder.riverwillow.com.au/arthur_mee/am_home.htm Arthur Mee] (includes excerpts from "The Children's Encyclopedia")
* [http://home.vicnet.net.au/~ozideas/arthurmee.htm Brief biography and some criticism]
*Kimberley Reynolds, [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/34973 ‘Mee, Arthur Henry (1875–1943)’] , "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography", Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 2 Jan 2008
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arthurmee/pip/w0vuh/ Arthur Mee: Encyclopedist] Radio 4 biography

Footnotes

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