J. D. Beresford

Who was J. D. Beresford?

John Davys Beresford was an English writer, now remembered for his early science fiction and some short stories in the horror story and ghost story genres. Beresford was a great admirer of H. G. Wells, and wrote the first critical study of Wells in 1915. His Wellsian novel The Hampdenshire Wonder was a major influence on Olaf Stapledon. His other science-fiction novels include The Riddle of the Tower, about a dystopian, hive-like society.

His father was a clergyman in Castor, now in Cambridgeshire near Peterborough. J. D. Beresford was affected by infantile paralysis, which left him partially disabled. He was educated at Oundle.

After training to become an architect, he became a professional writer, first as a dramatist, and journalist. In early adulthood he broke away from his father's views and became a "determined but defensive" agnostic. He combined a prominent place in Edwardian literary London with time spent in the provinces, in particular Cornwall where D. H. Lawrence had an extended stay in his Porthcothan cottage. Later in life Beresford abandoned his earlier agnosticism and described himself as a Theosophist and a pacifist.