Alfred Henry Miles

{{Short description |English composer, lecturer, writer (1948–1929)}}

Image:The Universal Natural History (Alfred Henry Miles).jpg

Image:Fifty-two Thrilling Stories of Life at Home and Abroad.jpg

Alfred Henry Miles (26 February 1848 – 30 October 1929) was a prolific Victorian-era English writer – including as an anthologist, children's writer, editor, journalist, and poet – as well as a composer and lecturer.

He published hundreds of works on a wide range of topics, ranging from poetry (The Poets and the Poetry of the Century, 10 volumes. (London: Hutchinson, 1891)), warfare (Wars of the Olden Times, Abraham to Cromwell) to household encyclopaedias with information for every conceivable contingency (The Household Oracle: A Popular Referee on Subjects of Household Enquiry), and even advice to the lovelorn (Wooing: Stories of the Course That Never Did Run Smooth by R. E. Francillon and others. Issued as a volume in The Idle Hour Series, London: Hutchinson, [1891]).

He was Guardian of the Poor for six years and a member of the London Borough of Lewisham from 1904 to 1906.

He was editor of the Fifty-Two Library, a series of children's adventure stories published by Hutchinson & Co., London in the 19th century. He compiled some fifty volumes that appeared at five shillings apiece.

Selected books

The Fifty-Two Library [52v|1889–1907]
The Poets and Poetry of the Century (ed.) [10v|p|1891–97]
The Universal Natural History, with Anecdotes Illustrating the Nature, Habits, Manners and Customs of Animals, Birds, Fishes, Reptiles, Insects, etc., etc. edited by Alfred H. Miles, New York : Dodd, Mead and Co., 1895 [http://siris-libraries.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?uri=full=3100001~!380292!0 Smithsonian Institution]
Successful Recitations (ed.) [1902]
Log Leaves and Sailing Orders (ed.) [c|1902]
Edward Hayes Plumptre to Selwyn Image: The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century [b|1906]
Christina G. Rossetti to Katharine Tynan (ed.) [1907]
Drawing Room Entertainments [d|pub:1909]
Ballads of Brave Women [1909]
A Book of Brave Girls at Home and Abroad [n|1909]
A Book of Brave Boys All the World Over [n|1909]
The First Favourite Reciter (ed.) [1909]
Original Poems, Ballads, and Tales in Verse [p|1910]
The Sweep of the Sword [1910]
Twixt Life and Death Opon Sea and Shore [1910]
Heroines of the Home and the World of Duty [1910]
A Garland of Verse for Young People [p|1911]
The Diner's-Out Vade Mecum [n|1912]
A Book of Brave Boys [n|?/1915]
Heroes of History [1916]

Poetry

Miles's poetry is unashamedly chauvinistic and strongly reminiscent of Rudyard Kipling.

"John Bull and His Island" (first verse)

:There's a doughty little Island in the ocean,

::The dainty little darling of the free;

:That pulses with the patriots' emotion,

::And the palpitating music of the sea:

:She is first in her loyalty to duty;

::She is first in the annals of the brave;

:She is first in her chivalry and beauty,

::And first in the succour of the slave!

:Then here's to the pride of the ocean!

::Here's to the pearl of the sea!

:Here's to the land of the heart and the hand

::That fight for the right of the free!

:Here's to the spirit of duty,

::Bearing her banners along--

:Peacefully furled in the van of the world

::Or waving and braving the wrong.{{cite book

|title=Successful Recitations

|editor-last=Miles

|editor-first=Alfred H.

|editor-link=Alfred Henry Miles

|publisher=S. H. Bousfield & Co.

|location=London

|date=1901

|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17378

}}

References

External links

{{Gutenberg author | id=7333| name=Alfred Henry Miles}}
{{Internet Archive author |sname=Alfred Henry Miles}}
[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1906/02/10/101833168.pdf The New York Times]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20081209200424/http://www.library.rochester.edu/index.cfm?page=987 Rochester Library]

Category:Place of birth missing

Category:Place of death missing

Category:1848 births

Category:1929 deaths

Category:19th-century English composers

Category:19th-century English educators

Category:19th-century English journalists

Category:19th-century English male musicians

Category:19th-century English male writers

Category:19th-century English novelists

Category:19th-century English poets

Category:20th-century English composers