J. D. Beresford

J. D. Beresford

John Davys Beresford (17 March 1873 – 1 February 1947) 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. He 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. 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. Beresford described himself as a Theosophist and a pacifist.

Beresford's interest in the spiritual and philosophical may be best illustrated by the publisher notes to his novel, On A Huge Hill:

"Mr Beresford's readers have long known that that for him there are more things in heaven or earth than are dreamt of in official medical philosophy. He has used his novelist's skill to convince the sensitive reader that the age of miracles is not over, and that, in certain circumstances, the spirit may exercise what seem to us miraculous powers over the substance of the body. This he did in 'The Camberwell Miracle' and 'Peckover'; and in this absorbing novel, he returns to the theme, with the study of a man fitting himself to become a great healer."

Elisabeth Beresford (1926–2010), children's writer and creator of The Wombles, was his daughter. Through his son, writer Marc Brandel, he is the great-grandfather of American actor James Newman.