JAMES

See also:

• RICE (Greek 6p6 a, Latin oryza, French riz, Italian riso, Spanish arroz, derived from the Arabic)
• RICE, EDMUND IGNATIUS (1762-1844)
• JAMES RICE (1843-1882)

RICE (1843-1882)  , English novelist, was born at Northampton on the 26th of September 1843 . Educated at Queens' College, Cambridge, where he graduated in law in 1867, he was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1871 . In the meantime (1868) he had bought Once a Week, which proved a losing venture for him, but which brought him into touch with Walter Besant, a contributor [see Besant's preface to the Library Edition (1887) of Ready-money Mortiboy] . There ensued a close friendship and a literary partnership between the two men which lasted ten years until Rice's death, and resulted in a large number of successful novels . The first of them, published anonymously, Rice being responsible for the central figure and the leading situation, was Ready-money Mortiboy (1782), dramatized by them later and unsuccessfully produced at the Court Theatre in 1874 . In rapid succession followed My Little Girl (1873); With Harp and Crown (1874); This Son of Vulcan (1876); The Golden Butterfly (1876), the most popular of their joint productions; The Monks of Thelema (1878); By Celia's Arbour (1878); The Seamy Side (188o) ; The Chaplain of the Fleet (1881); Sir Richard Whittington (1881), and a large number of short stories, some of them reprinted in The Case of Mr Lucraft, &c . (1876), 'Twas in Trafalgar's Bay, &c . (1879), and The Ten Years' Tenant, &c . (1881) . James Rice died at Redhill on the 26th of April 1882 .