R. D. Blackmore (1825-1900), English novelist, born in Longworth, Berkshire, and educated at the University of Oxford. He wrote several volumes of poetry before the publication of his first novel, Clara Vaughan (1864). His reputation was established by Lorna Doone (1869), a historical novel with a 17th-century setting; it remains his best-known work. Among Blackmore's other writings are the novels Cradock Nowell (1866), Alice Lorraine (1875), Springhaven (1887), and Dariel (1897).