John Richard Jefferies (November 6 1848 - August 14 1887 ) was an English nature writer, essayist and journalist. He wrote fiction mainly based on farming and rural life.

He was born at Coate, near Swindon, Wiltshire, the son of a farmer. From early in life he showed a great love of the countryside, but was temperamentally unsuited to follow his father as a farmer, and in 1866 he found employment as a newspaper reporter for the North Wiltshire Herald. His birthplace and home is a Museum open to the public.

Two of his books were written as children's books, Wood Magic (1881) and Bevis: the story of a Boy (1882), which are regarded as minor classics.

After London (1885) is of the type that could be best described as "post-holocaust science fiction"; after some sudden and unspecified catastrophe has depopulated England, the countryside reverts to nature, and the few survivors to a quasi-medieval way of life. The first chapters consist solely of a loving description of nature reclaiming England: fields becoming overrun by forest, domesticated animals running wild, roads and towns becoming overgrown, the hated London reverting to lake and poisonous swampland. The rest of the story is a straightforward adventure/quest set many years later in the wild landscape and society; but the opening chapters set an example for many later science fiction stories.

He died at Goring-on-Sea, Sussex, having lived for some time in Eltham on the south-east fringes of London.

After his death, a number of posthumous collections were made of his writings previously published in newspapers and magazines, beginning with Field and Hedgerow (1889), edited by his widow. New collections have appeared over the century following his birth, but even now not all have been reprinted in book form.

Early works included three by Henry Salt:

• Richard Jefferies: A Study (1894)
• Richard Jefferies: His Life and His Ideas (1905)
• The Faith of Richard Jefferies (1906)

Jefferies' works inspired Henry Williamson to take up writing ; Williamson edited a collection of Jefferies' writings with a title that indicates the great regard that he held for Jefferies:

• RICHARD JEFFERIES : Selections of his Work with details of his Life and Circumstances, his Death and Immortality (1947)

Published books by Jefferies

• The Scarlet Shawl (1874)
• Restless Human Hearts (1875)
• World's End (1877)
• The Gamekeeper at Home (1878)
• Wild Life in a Southern County (1879)
• The Amateur Poacher (1879)
• Greene Ferne Farm (1880)
• Round About a Great Estate (1880)
• Hodge and His Masters (1880)
• Wood Magic (1881)
• Bevis: the Story of a Boy (1882)
• Nature Near London (1883)
• The Story of My Heart: An Autobiography (1883)
• Red Deer (1884)
• The Life of the Fields (1884)
• The Dewy Morn (1884)
• The Open Air (1885)
• After London; Or, Wild England (1885)
• Amaryllis at the Fair (1887)
• Field and Hedgerow; Being the Last Essays of Richard Jefferies (1889--posthumous)

External links

• Richard Jefferies: his life and works
• Richard Jefferies Society