Walter Herries Pollock

Walter Herries Pollock (21 February 1850 – 21 February 1926) was an English writer, poet, lecturer and journalist. He is best known as editor of the Saturday Review, a position he held from 1884 to 1894, but also had published various miscellaneous writings that included novels, short stories, plays, poetry and translated works between 1877 and 1920. He was also, at one time, considered one of the best amateur fencers in Great Britain.

Pollock was well known in Britain's literary circles during the Victorian era and was close friends with a number of writers, including Robert Louis Stevenson, Rudyard Kipling, Oscar Wilde, Egerton Castle, W. E. Henley and Henry Irving. He was also involved in collaborations with Alexander Duffield, Sir Walter Besant, Andrew Lang, F. C. Grove and Camille Prévost and Lilian Moubrey.

A member of the esteemed Pollock family, he was the second son of Sir William Frederick Pollock, 2nd Baronet and brother to lawyer Sir Frederick Pollock, 3rd Baronet and George Frederick Pollock. He in turn was the father of newspaperman Guy Cameron Pollock, a longtime journalist for the Evening Standard and Daily Express, and managing editor of the Morning Post. Walter and Guy Pollock wrote a novel together in 1905.

Biography Walter Pollock was born in London on 21 February 1850, the second son of Sir William Frederick Pollock, 2nd Baronet. His great-grandfather, Mr. David Pollock, was a member of the British royal court and saddler to King George III. His grandfather was Sir Frederick Pollock, 1st Baronet, Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, a high judicial appointment of which he was the penultimate holder. One of his grand-uncles, Sir David Pollock, was the chief justice of Bombay, while another, Sir George Pollock, became a field marshal. His own father was an author and Queen's Remembrancer under Queen Victoria from 1874 to 1886, when the post was passed on to his brother George Frederick Pollock who continued to hold the title until the turn of the 20th century. His eldest brother, Sir Frederick Pollock, 3rd Baronet, was a noted lawyer and frequently worked with him during his career.

Educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, he graduated with a classical degree in 1871 and was called to the bar at the Inner Temple three years later. He developed an interest in literature and history and began lecturing at the Royal Institution, London. Among the subjects he discussed included the works of Richelieu, Colbert, Victor Hugo, Sir Francis Drake and Théophile Gautier. In 1875, he joined the staff of the Saturday Review and became an assistant editor. He became close friends with many members of Victorian Britain's literary circle including Robert Louis Stevenson, Rudyard Kipling,

Another close friend and collaborator, Andrew Lang, worked with Pollock on the Saturday Review and published many of Lang's anonymous reviews and "middle" articles. and went to live at Chawton in Hampshire to devote himself to writing full-time. He wrote novels on German student life, at least one book in French, Monsieur le Marquis de -- (1780–1793), Memoires Inédits Recueillis (1894), various plays, and also made several excursions into belles-lettres.