Henry Festing Jones (30 January 1851 – 23 October 1928) was an English solicitor and writer, known as the friend and posthumous biographer of Samuel Butler.

Life

He was the son of Thomas Jones

Q.C. QC may refer to: * Queen's Counsel, the title of a King's Counsel, a type of lawyer in Commonwealth countries, during the reign of a queen * Quality control, the process of meeting products and services to consumer expectations Places * Quebec, ...

, and entered

Trinity Hall, Cambridge Trinity Hall (formally The College or Hall of the Holy Trinity in the University of Cambridge) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. It is the fifth-oldest surviving college of the university, having been founded in 1350 by ...

, in 1870. Graduating B.A. in 1873, he was articled to a solicitor. He qualified in the profession in 1876. Jones met Samuel Butler through Edward Hall, a college friend; they became close in 1876. From 1887, he was Butler's paid companion and musical collaborator. Two of the musical works they worked on together, with Butler chiefly responsible for the words, were the cantatas ''Narcissus'' (private rehearsal 1886, published 1888), and ''Ulysses'', both for solo voices, chorus and orchestra. Butler had settled in 1864 in

Clifford's Inn Clifford's Inn is a former Inn of Chancery in London. It was located between Fetter Lane, Clifford's Inn Passage, leading off Fleet Street and Chancery Lane in the City of London. The Inn was founded in 1344 and refounded 15 June 1668. It was d ...

, London, where he lived for the rest of his life, dying in 1902; Jones lived in

Barnard's Inn Barnard's Inn is a former Inn of Chancery in Holborn, London. It is now the home of Gresham College, an institution of higher learning established in 1597 that hosts public lectures. History Barnard's Inn dates back at least to the mid-thirt ...

and

Staple Inn Staple Inn is a part-Tudor period, Tudor building on the south side of High Holborn street in the City of London, London, England. Located near Chancery Lane tube station, it is used as the London venue for meetings of the Institute and Faculty ...

during Butler's lifetime. After Butler's death, Jones moved within London to

Maida Vale Maida Vale ( ) is an affluent residential district consisting of the northern part of Paddington in West London, west of St John's Wood and south of Kilburn. It is also the name of its main road, on the continuous Edgware Road. Maida Vale is ...

, where his sister kept house for him. He advised Butler's executors (Reginald Worsley, and R. A. Streatfeild who was

literary executor The literary estate of a deceased author consists mainly of the copyright and other intellectual property rights of published works, including film, translation rights, original manuscripts of published work, unpublished or partially completed w ...

). He organised annual "Erewhon Dinners" in Butler's memory, from 1908 to 1914, at the suggestion of Marcus Hartog. P. N. Furbank has criticised the editorial stance Jones took, and the effort to make Butler "respectable".

Work on Samuel Butler's legacy

In 1910 Jones met Francis Darwin, in an attempt to close the feud between Butler and

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended ...

that had arisen around 1880; the result was a pamphlet, ''Charles Darwin and Samuel Butler: A Step toward Reconciliation'' (1911). Jones published a well-regarded selection, ''The Note-Books of Samuel Butler'' (1912), after

Desmond MacCarthy Sir Charles Otto Desmond MacCarthy FRSL (20 May 1877 – 7 June 1952) was a British writer and the foremost literary and dramatic critic of his day. He was a member of the Cambridge Apostles, the intellectual secret society, from 1896. Early li ...

had seen the originals and published extracts in the ''New Quarterly Review''. The editing of this work has been seen as involving false emphasis and polishing of the originals, producing an effect of a "cross between Oscar Wilde and Dr Johnson". In 1919, his biography of Butler, entitled ''Samuel Butler, Author of Erewhon (1835–1902): A Memoir'', won the inaugural

James Tait Black Memorial Prize The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are literary prizes awarded for literature written in the English language. They, along with the Hawthornden Prize, are Britain's oldest literary awards. Based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Uni ...

for a biography. Jones edited Butler's works with Augustus Theodore Bartholomew, known as Theo and a librarian and bibliographer in Cambridge, in 20 volumes, which appeared in 1923–1926. On Bartholomew's death in 1933,

Geoffrey Keynes Sir Geoffrey Langdon Keynes ( ; 25 March 1887, Cambridge – 5 July 1982, Cambridge) was a British surgeon and author. He began his career as a physician in World War I, before becoming a doctor at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London, where h ...

became his literary executor, also taking on the papers of Jones and Butler, acting with Brian Hill.

Later life

Through Theo Bartholomew, Jones came to know Siegfried Sassoon, meeting after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

; Sassoon and others knew him as "Enrico". They corresponded, and Sassoon found Jones a sympathetic audience. Bartholomew and Mansfield Forbes visited Jones, and gave him "guru" status. Geoffrey Keynes and his wife were good friends.

Other works

*''Diversions in Sicily (1909) *''Castellinaria, and Other Sicilian Diversions'' (1911) *''Mont Eryx, and Other Diversions of Travel'' (1921) Jones was a student of the '' Opera dei Pupi''. Butler had visited Sicily almost annually in the last decade of his life, usually with Jones.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Henry Festing 1851 births 1928 deaths British biographers James Tait Black Memorial Prize recipients