Background
Greg was born at Manchester in 1809. He was the son of Samuel Greg, the creator of Quarry Bank Mill, and Hannah Greg.
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William Rathbone Greg
William Rathbone Greg was an English essayist.
Education
Greg was educated at the university of Edinburgh.
Career
William for a time managed a mill of his father's at Bury, and in 1832 he began business on his own account. He entered with ardour into the struggle for free trade. He was too much occupied with political, economical and theological speculations to give undivided attention to his business, which he gave up in 1850 to devote himself to writing.
William Rathbone Greg's Creed of Christendom was published in 1851, and in 1852 he contributed no less than twelve articles to four leading quarterlies. Disraeli praised him; Sir George Cornewall Lewis bestowed a Commissionership of Customs upon him in 1856; and in 1864 he was made Comptroller of the Stationery Office.
William Rathbone Greg wrote two of the best known essays, The Enigmas of Life (1872) and Rocks Ahead (1874). They represent a reaction from the high hopes of the author's youth, when wise legislation was assumed to be a remedy for every public ill. He died at Wimbledon in 1881.
Achievements
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Greg contributed a lot of his writings to periodicals. He produced several volumes of essays on political and social philosophy. His principal works were "The Enigmas of Life" and "Rocks Ahead". In 1842 he obtained the prize offered by the Anti-Corn Law League for the best essay on “Agriculture and the Corn Laws. ”
Works
Membership
He became a member of the Metaphysical Society.
Connections
William Rathbone Greg had two sons. One son, Percy Greg, was also a writer. He wrote on politics, but his views were violently reactionary. His "History of the United States to the Reconstruction of the Union" (1887) was a polemic rather than a history. Another son, Walter Wilson Greg, was a leading bibliographer of English Renaissance theatre.
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Born
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Died
November 15, 1881 (aged 72) -
Nationality
United Kingdom
Awards
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Prize of the Anti-Corn Law League
18421842