TROLLOPE, ANTHONY English novelist, was born in London, April 24, 1815. He came of a family which engaged in literary pursuits. His father, THOMAS ANTHONY TROLLOPE (1774-1835) was a learned but unbusinesslike bar rister, who spent much time on an Encyclopedia Ecclesiastica and gave up law for farming, with ruin as the result. His mother, FRANCES MILTON TROLLOPE (1780-1863) went with her husband to Cincinnati to retrieve their fortunes by running a fancy-goods shop, and coming back disappointed achieved notoriety and roused violent resentment by her caustic book, Domestic Manners of the Americans (1832). She afterwards wrote some fifty novels and books of travel, and maintained the family by her literary earn ings, her best novel being The Vicar of Wrexhill (1837) and The Widow Barnaby (1839), a fair second. (See Frances Trollope, her Life and Literary Work, 1895, by her daughter-in-law.) Her eldest son, THOMAS ADOLPHUS TROLLOPE (1810-92), was a popu lar writer of novels and miscellaneous works, largely on Italian subjects, his adopted home being in Florence. His second wife, FRANCES ELEANOR TROLLOPE, also a novelist, collaborated with him in Homes and Haunts of Italian Poets (1881).
Anthony, who was the third son, gave an unvarnished account of his unhappy youth in his Autobiography (which was edited by his son Henry M. Trollope in 1883), an extraordinarily can did book that had a disillusioning effect on too fervid admirers by giving away the secrets of his workshop. It probably caused the long eclipse of his fame, which has recently been followed by a striking renewal. During the family impecuniosity, he was a day-boy at Winchester and Harrow, and suffered pangs through his shabby and dirty appearance, and the unpopularity and gen eral discouragement which were the result. He reached the verge of manhood almost as ignorant as if he had had no schooling at all, yet he tried to start in life by taking the post of classical usher in a private school in Brussels. But he received the offer of a clerkship in the General Post Office, London, and after a farcical pretence at an examination was appointed (1834). For the seven years of his service here, his salary was small, he was in debt, troubled with awkward love-affairs, and often in hot water with his superiors. Then he was transferred to Ireland (1841) as a surveyor's clerk, with a moderate salary but liberal allowances and the duties of a sort of travelling inspector. The change brought out a business capacity hitherto unsuspected. He enjoyed a comfortable income, he had time in spite of a busy life to indulge freely in hunting, he consorted with people of all classes and began to stock his memory for the long-cherished purpose of trying his hand at fiction, and in 1844 he married an English lady, Rose Heseltine, whom he had met in Ireland, and estab lished himself in a house at Clonmel.
Trollope's first two novels, The Macdermots of Ballycloran (1847) and The Kellys and the O'Kellys (1848), failures though they proved, are examples of his thoroughness in making himself acquainted with a given sphere of life, as he was afterwards to do with clerical society, political life, and legal affairs, and also of his aptitude for developing a good story casually heard. The first is dark and pathetic, the second has many sparkling scenes; neither is the work of a Carleton or Banim, but both steer clear of the mere stage Irishman of Lever and Lover. Trollope perse vered, but a historical novel, La Vendee (185o) deservedly fell flat.
A chance visit to Salisbury Close gave him his idea for The Warden (1855), the simple, touching, but humorous story of a precentor in a cathedral town, who out of sensitiveness to public criticism resigns the well-paid office of warden to an ancient charity. Mr. Harding and his blustering son-in-law Archdeacon Grantly reappear, with other clerical dignitaries, their wives, families and friends, including the famous "Bishopess," Mrs. Proudie, the unctuous and pushful Mr. Slope, and the epicurean Dr. Stanhope and his disreputable children, in Barchester Towers (1857). The "Barsetshire Chronicles" were thus launched, bring ing their author praise and, in due time, substantial profit. Trol lope was now inspector of rural deliveries for the south-west of Ireland, with a roving commission that suited his tastes, scope for improvements on which he prided himself, and plenty of time for hunting. He is said to have been the inventor of the pillar-box. His ability and his experience of Post Office business led to his being sent on a mission to the West Indies (1858), which gave him material for a travel-book, The West Indies and the Spanish Main (1859). Other official journeys took him to Egypt (1858), the United States (1862), Australia and New Zealand (1871-72), and South Africa (1878), and resulted in further gossipy narra tives and several tales. He got himself transferred to England (1859), taking charge of the eastern postal district and settling in a house at Waltham Cross. He retired from the Post Office (1867), out of annoyance at being passed over for promotion. Trollope was instrumental in starting the Fortnightly Review (1865), edited the St. Paul's Magazine (1868), rather disastrously, and was a contributor to Cornhill, Blackwood and other periodi cals. He stood for Beverley (1868), but only acquired useful experience for future novels of political life.