{{Short description|English travel writer and historian (1809–1891)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2016}} {{Use British English|date=December 2016}} {{Infobox person | name = Alexander William Kinglake | image = Alexander William Kinglake by Harriet M. Haviland.jpg | caption = 1863 portrait by Harriet M. Haviland | birth_date = {{birth date text|5 August 1809}} | birth_place = Near [[Taunton]], [[Somerset]] | death_date = {{Death date and age|1891|1|2|1809|8|5|df=y}} | education = {{ubl|[[Eton College]]|[[Trinity College, Cambridge]]|[[Lincoln's Inn]]}} | occupation = Travel writer, historian }}
'''Alexander William Kinglake''' (5 August 1809 – 2 January 1891) was an English orientalist travel writer and historian. He was the author of a multi-volume history entitled ''The Invasion of Crimea: Its Origin, and an Account of its Progress down to the Death of Lord Raglan'', published from 1863 to 1887.
[[File:Alexander William Kinglake Vanity Fair 2 March 1872.jpg|thumb|"Not an M.P." Caricature by [[Adriano Cecioni|Cecioni]] published in ''[[Vanity Fair (British magazine)|Vanity Fair]]'', 1872]]
==Biography== Kinglake was born near [[Taunton]], [[Somerset]], England, and was educated at [[Eton College]] and [[Trinity College, Cambridge]] (earning a B.A. degree in 1832, and an M.A. in 1836).<ref>{{acad|id=KNGK828AW|name=Kinglake, Alexander William}}</ref><ref name="DNB">{{cite DNB |wstitle=Kinglake, Alexander William |last=Stephen |first=Leslie |author-link=Leslie Stephen |volume=31}}</ref> In 1837, he was [[called to the bar]] at [[Lincoln's Inn]],<ref name="DNB" /> and went on to build up a thriving legal practice, which, in 1856, he abandoned to devote himself to literature and public life.
His first literary venture was ''Eothen; or Traces of travel brought home from the East'' (London: [[John Ollivier|J. Ollivier]], 1844), a very popular work of Eastern travel, apparently first published anonymously, in which he described a journey he made about ten years earlier in Syria, Palestine and Egypt, together with his Eton contemporary [[John Savile, 4th Earl of Mexborough|Lord Pollington]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=gno7GvCFiigC&pg=PR8 Introduction to Eothen: Traces of Travel Brought Home from the East, Northwestern University Press, 1 Apr 1997]</ref> [[Elliot Warburton]] said it evoked "the East itself in vital actual reality" and it was instantly successful.
However, Kinglake's ''[[masterpiece|magnum opus]]'' was ''The Invasion of Crimea: Its Origin, and an Account of its Progress down to the Death of Lord Raglan'', in eight volumes, published from 1863 to 1887 by [[Blackwood (publishing house)|Blackwood]] in [[Edinburgh]], one of the most effective works of its class. The history, which [[Geoffrey Bocca]] describes as a book "by which no intelligent man can fail immediately to be fascinated, no matter to what page he might open it" has been accused of being too favourable to [[Fitzroy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan|Lord Raglan]] and unduly hostile to [[Napoleon III of France|Napoleon III]], for whom the author had an extreme aversion.
A [[Whigs (British political party)|Whig]], Kinglake was elected at the [[1857 United Kingdom general election|1857 general election]] as one of the two [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Members of Parliament]] (MP) for [[Bridgwater (UK Parliament constituency)|Bridgwater]], having unsuccessfully contested the seat in [[1852 United Kingdom general election|1852]]. He was returned at the next two general elections, but the result of the [[1868 United Kingdom general election|1868 general election]] in Bridgwater was voided on petition on 26 February 1869. No [[by-election]] was held, and after a [[Royal Commission]] found that there had been extensive corruption, the town was disenfranchised in 1870.<ref name="craig1832-1885">{{cite book |last=Craig |first=F. W. S. |author-link= F. W. S. Craig |title=British parliamentary election results 1832–1885 |orig-year=1977 |edition= 2nd |year=1989 |publisher= Parliamentary Research Services |location=Chichester |isbn= 0-900178-26-4 |pages=61–62}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Alexander William Kinglake|url=http://www.paulfrecker.com/pictureDetails.cfm?pagetype=home&typeID=3&ID=6772|publisher=Paul Frecker|access-date=24 September 2012}}</ref>
In the late 1880s, he developed cancer of the throat, and he died on 2 January 1891.<ref name="DNB" />
The town of [[Kinglake, Victoria|Kinglake]] in [[Victoria, Australia]],<ref>{{cite news | url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=pHcQAAAAIBAJ&pg=5788%2C1571408 | title=Pioneers honored | work=The Age | date=6 September 1977 | access-date=28 April 2015 | pages=3}}</ref> and the adjacent national park, are named after him.
==Notes== {{Reflist|30em}}
==References== * {{cite web |publisher=Parks Victoria |title=Kinglake National Park |work=Print Version |date=1 August 2001 |url=http://www.parkweb.vic.gov.au/1park_print.cfm?park=121 |access-date=2007-11-01 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070830180606/http://www.parkweb.vic.gov.au/1park_print.cfm?park=121 |archive-date=30 August 2007 }} *{{A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature}} *[[Margaret Drabble|Drabble, M.]] (ed.) (1983), ''[[The Oxford Companion to English Literature]]''. Oxford: Oxford University Press; p. 534.
== External links == {{wikisource|works=or}} {{Commons category}} * {{Hansard-contribs | mr-alexander-kinglake | Alexander Kinglake }} * {{gutenberg author| id=163| name=Alexander William Kinglake}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Alexander William Kinglake}} * {{Librivox author |id=4727}} *{{OL author|537727A}} * The Invasion of the Crimea, [https://archive.org/details/invasionofcrimea01kinguoft vol 1] - [https://archive.org/details/invasionofcrimea02kinguoft vol 2] - [https://archive.org/details/invasionofcrimea03kinguoft vol 3] - [https://archive.org/details/invasionofcrime04king vol 4] - [https://archive.org/details/invasionofcrime05king vol 5] - [https://archive.org/details/invasioncrimeai11kinggoog vol 6] - [https://archive.org/details/invasionofcrimea07kinguoft vol 7] - [https://archive.org/details/cu31924071199750 vol 8] - [https://archive.org/details/invasionofcrime09king vol 9] {{s-start}} {{s-par|uk}} {{s-bef | before = [[Brent Follett]]<br />[[Charles Kemeys-Tynte (1800-1882)|Charles Kemeys-Tynte]] }} {{s-ttl | title = [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] for [[Bridgwater (UK Parliament constituency)|Bridgwater]] | years = [[1857 United Kingdom general election|1857]] – 1869 | with = [[Charles Kemeys-Tynte (1800-1882)|Charles Kemeys-Tynte]] to 1865 | with2 = [[Henry Westropp]] 1865–1866 | with3 = [[George Patton, Lord Glenalmond|George Patton]] 1866 | with4 = [[Philip Vanderbyl]] from 1866 }} {{s-non | reason = Constituency disenfranchised }} {{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kinglake, Alexander William}} [[Category:1809 births]] [[Category:1891 deaths]] [[Category:19th-century English historians]] [[Category:19th-century English male writers]] [[Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge]] [[Category:British people of the Crimean War]] [[Category:English travel writers]] [[Category:Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies]] [[Category:People educated at Eton College]] [[Category:People from Somerset]] [[Category:People from Taunton]] [[Category:UK MPs 1857–1859]] [[Category:UK MPs 1859–1865]] [[Category:UK MPs 1865–1868]] [[Category:UK MPs 1868–1874]] [[Category:Whig (British political party) MPs for English constituencies]] [[Category:English male non-fiction writers]] [[Category:19th-century British travel writers]]