Benson's literary family included his brothers Edward Frederic Benson, best remembered for his Mapp and Lucia novels, and Robert Hugh Benson, a priest of the Church of England before converting to Roman Catholicism, who wrote many popular novels. Their sister Margaret Benson was an artist, author, and amateur Egyptologist.
Though exceptionally accomplished, the Benson family met tragic times: a son and daughter died young, while another daughter and Arthur himself suffered from a mental condition that may have been bipolar disorder[2] or manic-depressivepsychosis, seemingly inherited from their father. None of the children married.[3]
Despite his illness, Arthur was to become a distinguished academic and a prolific author. From the ages of 10 to 21, he lived in cathedral closes, first at Lincoln where his father was Chancellor of Lincoln Cathedral, and then at Truro, where his father was the first Bishop of Truro. He retained a love of church music and ceremony.
In 1874 he won a scholarship to Eton from Temple Grove School, a preparatory school in East Sheen. In 1881 he went up to King's College, Cambridge, where he was a scholar (King's College had closed scholarships for which only Etonians were eligible) and achieved first-class honours in the Classical tripos in 1884.[4]
From 1885 to 1903 Benson taught at Eton, but returned to Cambridge in 1904 as a Fellow of Magdalene College to lecture in English Literature. He became president of the college (the Master's deputy) in 1912, and he was Master of Magdalene (head of the college) from December 1915 until his death in 1925. From 1906, he was a governor of Gresham's School.[5]
The modern development of Magdalene was shaped by Benson,[4] as a generous benefactor with a marked impact on the appearance of the college grounds; he appears in at least 20 inscriptions around the college.[6] In 1930, the new Benson Court was named after him.[7]
Benson worked with Lord Esher in editing the correspondence of Queen Victoria, which appeared in 1907.[8][9] His poems and essay volumes, such as From a College Window and The Upton Letters (essays in the form of letters) were famous in his time; and he left one of the longest diaries ever written: some four million words.[10] His literary criticisms of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Edward FitzGerald, Walter Pater and John Ruskin rank among his best work.
Like his brothers Edward Frederic and Robert Hugh, Benson was noted as an author of ghost stories. The bulk of them, in two volumes, The Hill of Trouble and Other Stories (1903) and The Isles of Sunset (1904), were written for his pupils as moral allegories. After Arthur's death, Fred Benson found a collection of unpublished ghost stories and included two in a book, Basil Netherby (1927). The title story was renamed "House at Treheale" and the volume completed by a long piece, "The Uttermost Farthing",[11] but the fate of the other stories is unknown.
Paul the Minstrel and Other Stories (1911, reprinted 1977) collects the contents of The Hill of Trouble and Other Stories and The Isles of Sunset.[12] Nine of Arthur's ghost stories are included in David Stuart Davies (ed.), The Temple of Death: The Ghost Stories of A. C. & R. H. Benson (Wordsworth, 2007), together with seven by his brother R. H. Benson, while nine of Arthur's and ten of Robert's appear in Ghosts in the House (Ash-Tree, 1996) – the contents of the joint collections are similar but not identical.
In The Schoolmaster, Benson summarised his views on education after 18 years' experience at Eton. He criticised a trend he found prevalent in English public schools, to "make the boys good and to make them healthy" to the detriment of their intellectual development.[13]
^Extracts from the diaries are printed in Edwardian Excursions. From the Diaries of A. C. Benson, 1898–1904, ed. David Newsome, London: John Murray, 1981.
^Victoria (1907). The Letters of Queen Victoria, a selection from Her Majesty's correspondence between the years 1837 and 1861, published by authority of His Majesty the king; Vol. I 1837–1843. London: John Murray. hdl:2027/umn.31951002171032u.
^Victoria (1907). The Letters of Queen Victoria, a selection from Her Majesty's correspondence between the years 1837 and 1861, published by authority of His Majesty the king; Vol. II 1844–1853. New York: Longmans, Green & Co. hdl:2027/hvd.hx3v5u.
^Victoria (1907). The Letters of Queen Victoria, a selection from Her Majesty's correspondence between the years 1837 and 1861, published by authority of His Majesty the king; Vol. III 1854–1861. London: John Murray. hdl:2027/osu.32435028626158.
^Benson, Arthur Christopher (1912). The Beauty of Life: being selections from the writings of Arthur Christopher Benson. London, New York, Toronto: Hodder & Stoughton. hdl:2027/inu.39000002953664.
^Benson, Arthur Christopher (1913). Joyous Gard. New York and London: G.P. Putnam's. hdl:2027/uc1.$b682860.
^Benson, Arthur Christopher (1910). The Silent Isle. London: Smith, Elder & Co. hdl:2027/uc1.$b682863.
^Benson, Arthur Christopher (1913). Along the Road. London: James Nisbet & Co. hdl:2027/pst.000006729585.
^Benson, Arthur Christopher (1914). The Orchard Pavilion. New York and London: G.P. Putnam's Sons. hdl:2027/inu.30000118996788.
^Benson, Arthur Christopher (1915). Escape, and Other Essays. New York: The Century Co. hdl:2027/hvd.32044090316472.
^Benson, Arthur Christopher (1916). Meanwhile; A Packet of War Letters. London: John Murray. hdl:2027/uc1.b4078800.
^Benson, Arthur Christopher (1917). Father Payne. Putnam – via Internet Archive. Father Payne
^Benson, Arthur Christopher (1917). Life and Letters of Maggie Benson. J. Murray – via Internet Archive. Life and Letters of Maggie Benson
^Benson, Arthur Christopher (1913). Watersprings. Smith, Elder – via Internet Archive. Watersprings
^Benson, Arthur Christopher (1915). Hugh: Memoirs of a Brother. Longmans, Green – via Internet Archive. Hugh: Memoirs of a Brother
^Benson, Arthur Christopher (1923). Magdalene College, Cambridge; A little view of its buildings and history. Cambridge: Bowes & Bowes. hdl:2027/uc1.$b279316.
^Benson, Arthur Christopher (1905). Edward Fitzgerald. Macmillan – via Internet Archive. Edward Fitzgerald
^Benson, Arthur Christopher (1925). The House of Menerdue. London: William Heinemann. hdl:2027/uc1.$b682947.
^Benson, Arthur Christopher (1926). Rambles and Reflections. London: John Murray. hdl:2027/uc1.$b682862.