A Childhood Filled with Ancient Mysteries

I have loved reading for as long as I can remember, but when I was nine years old, my life changed dramatically.

Up on the top shelf of a closet, I discovered a mysterious old book. Its pages were loose and worn, and its black-and-white illustrations beckoned me toward distant, enigmatic lands. It was King Solomon’s Mines from the famous first series of the Adventure Library, published in 1957.

I finished it in a week.

Afterwards, my friends and I couldn’t stop talking about it. At summer camp, we even played at searching for King Solomon’s mines, sneaking off during the afternoon rest hour to explore an abandoned quarry.

Then came the incomparable Montezuma’s Daughter, and for many years I was captivated by the mysteries of the Aztecs. After that I discovered Eric Brighteyes, which opened the world of Norse legend; The Ring of the Queen of Sheba, about a forgotten civilization; She, which explored reincarnation and the legacy of Alexander the Great; The Ancient Allan (published in Russian as The Ice Gods), with its prehistoric adventures; and, of course, The Wanderer’s Necklace, a tale of Byzantium and journeys through time.

Henry Rider Haggard gave all of these worlds to me—and to millions of boys around the globe.

He was one of the founders of classic adventure fiction, a writer whose books have inspired generation after generation of readers worldwide.

Haggard was born 170 years ago, in 1856, in Norfolk, England, into the family of an English gentleman whose lineage traced back to a Danish knight who settled in England in the fifteenth century. His grandmother, meanwhile, came from Russia and had ties to St. Petersburg, adding an unexpected Russian note to the author’s family history.

His years of service in South Africa, his travels, and his fascination with ancient civilizations became the foundation of his literary career.

It was Haggard who created the iconic gentleman-adventurer Allan Quatermain and, to a great extent, shaped the lost-world adventure novel, influencing Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and many other twentieth-century writers.

The popularity of Haggard’s books

He achieved worldwide fame with King Solomon’s Mines (1885), She, and Montezuma’s Daughter (1893).

The latter was the result of extensive research into the Spanish conquest of Mexico, as well as Haggard’s own journey to the country. He was among the first European writers to portray the Indigenous civilizations of Latin America as cultures equal to those of Europe, and to view European colonization not as “the white man’s burden,” but as the destruction of unique civilizations for the sake of profit.

Haggard was deeply interested in archaeology and Egyptology. He took part in excavations and research in Egypt, and the ancient world became one of the central themes of his fiction. Egyptian motifs are especially prominent in Cleopatra and She.

In the Soviet Union, Henry Rider Haggard was one of the most beloved foreign writers of adventure fiction. His books were published in enormous print runs, and King Solomon’s Mines and Montezuma’s Daughter became genuine bestsellers for several generations of readers.

Haggard’s works have been adapted for the screen countless times. His novels have inspired dozens of films and television series in the United Kingdom, the United States, Italy, Germany, South Africa, and many other countries. She began its cinematic journey during the silent-film era and remains one of the most frequently adapted works of adventure literature.

Interestingly, Montezuma’s Daughter also found a musical life. The novel inspired stage productions and even a musical—performed, among other places, at the Moscow Operetta Theatre—demonstrating that the stories Haggard created continue to live far beyond the pages of his books.

Nearly a century and a half after the publication of King Solomon’s Mines, the books of Henry Rider Haggard still offer readers what has always been the magic of adventure literature: a thirst for discovery, the romance of distant journeys, and the belief that beyond the horizon there are still unexplored worlds waiting to be found.