Besant, Sir Walter, a man of letters, born at Portsmouth; eminent chiefly as a novelist of a healthily realistic type; wrote a number of novels jointly with James Rice, and is the author of “French Humourists,” as well as short stories; champion of the cause of Authors versus Publishers, and is chairman of the committee; (b. 1838).
Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)
Besant, Mrs. Annie * Besenval, Baron