Oliphant
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](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurence_Oliphant_%28author%29)
Achievements: Travel and writing
Born: 1829, Cape Town, South Africa
Died: December 23, 1888; Twickenham, Middlesex, England
Field & Discipline: Literature; Travel; Writer; Traveler
Language: English
Father:: Father: Anthony Oliphant
Mother: Maria Campbell
Siblings: None
Spouse: 1. Alice le Strange; 2. Rosamund Dale Owen
Children: None
Education: Peripatetic
Life & Times:
In 1852 [published by] John Murray* published Oliphant’s first travel book, “Journey to Kathmandu.” Oliphant next travelled to Russia, and his: “The Russian Shores of the Black Sea in the Autumn of 1852, with a Voyage Down the Volga, and a Tour Through the Country of the Don Cossacks” was published in 1853, at a time when war with Russia (the [wrote on] Crimean War*) appeared inevitable. When the war began in 1854 Oliphant had conversations with British military officers and suggested that the best way to take Sebastopol was to march on it from Balaklava.
Oliphant then became secretary to the Governor-General of Canada, Lord [secretary to] James Bruce Elgin*. Oliphant accompanied Elgin on a trade mission to Washington before going with him to Canada, where he was made Superintendent-General of Indian Affairs. As part of his duties, Oliphant visited the West to see the Indian tribes - a journey which he later wrote about in “Minnesota and the Far West” (1855).
Oliphant refused the offer of a position in the West Indies and returned to England with Elgin at the end of 1854. He renewed his efforts to get to the Crimea where England was now fighting Russia and in 1855 was given the task of liaising with the leader of a Turkish guerilla force. This mission failed but Oliphant was able to visit the Crimea just before the fall of Sebastopol, an experience which included watching an exhibition of cookery given by the French chief Alexis Soyer who had been sent out as part of [knew] Nightingale’s* welfare campaign for the army.
Oliphant was by this time well-known by now as a writer and in 1856 he accompanied the editor of the London “Times” to New York where his contacts included [met] Emerson* and [met] Greeley*.
On his return to England in 1857, he accepted an invitation to accompany Elgin to China, where British trade interests were being threatened by the Chinese government and Oliphant was present when the British bombarded Canton. Oliphant’s account of Elgin’s mission was published in 1859 as: “The Narrative of the Earl of Elgin’s Mission to China and Japan.” While he was away, Oliphant ‘s father had died and this influenced Oliphant further towards the spiritualism he was already leaning towards.
In 1859 he heard Thomas Lake Harris, the American mystic, for the first time and requested a meeting. Harris refused and Oliphant became fascinated by Harris’s reputation.
Meanwhile, in 1860 he went to Italy with the intention of trying to frustrate the deal struck between [opposed] Napoleon III* of France and [opposed] Cavour* (minister to the King and Sardinia) by which Nice and Savoy would be given to the French in return for their help against the Austrians. In Italy, Oliphant met Cavour and [met] Garibaldi*, then returned to England and in 1861 was appointed Charge d’Affaires in Japan. His stay in Japan was cut short when he was injured in an attack on the British Legation and sent home to recuperate after losing the use of several fingers.
His next brief was to go to Italy and sound out the prospects of further unification. In Vienna, he bumped into the Prince of Wales, whose visit to Venice and Trieste provided the perfect cover for Oliphant, who joined the prince’s group and then went on to Corfu and Albania. Over the next two years Oliphant undertook a number of other delicate missions for the Foreign Office.
1865 he became a Member of Parliament and published a novel called “Piccadilly: A Fragment of Contemporary Biography” in which he attacked the hypocrisy of London society and mentioned Harris, whom he declared to be the greatest poet of his age. Oliphant visited America, ostensibly to tour the southern states to see the effect of the Civil War, but he called in to see the Brotherhood of New Life, the utopian Christian Socialist community run by Harris.
Oliphant left his mother there but was not permitted to stay himself. He returned to England to await the call from Harris, which came in 1867, when Oliphant resigned his parliamentary seat, and went to Brocton, NY, where he gave all his money to Harris and undertook whatever menial jobs he was given.
At the end of 1869 he sent a satirical piece about a remote lakeside to a London magazine and then reappeared in London, where Harris had sent him to earn money. Oliphant acted as correspondent for the “Times” during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 and in Paris met his wife, who also joined the Harris community. They returned to Brocton in 1872.
Oliphant became involved with a scheme to colonize Palestine with Jews and in 1879 went to try and persuade the Turks to give permission for Jews to settle in Palestine. On his return to England he was joined by his wife and they travelled to the Middle East in 1882, both of them having become sceptical about Harris. The Oliphant’s settled in the Bay of Acre at Haifa, close to Jewish colonies, where they built a house. They wrote a book about their ideals: “Sympneumata; or, the Evolutionary Forces Now Active in Man” in which they tried to explain the belief, held by Harris and many idealist communities in America, that in an ideal world sexual intercourse would not occur.
Oliphant had not given up hope of a Jewish settlement in Palestine and enlisted the support of the American poet Lazarus* for a scheme to get the Russian government to put pressure on the Turks who had forbidden Jews to enter Palestine.
In 1886, Oliphant returned to England after his wife died, and published “Episodes in a Life of Adventure” (1887). On a visit to America in 1888, he met Rosamund Dale Owen, the daughter of [married daughter of] Robert Dale Owen*. They returned to England where Oliphant married Rosamund just before he died.
Extra Connections: He knew [knew] Thackeray* the novelist.
He met anti-vivisectionist Mary [visited] Kingsford in Paris.
Assessment: Oliphant was an eccentric who was regarded by his friends and colleagues as a brilliant man who had been led astray by his interest in spiritualism.
Oneliner: Laurence Oliphant, writer and pro-Zionist
Bibliography:
- Taylor, Anne, Laurence Oliphant, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1982.