Arthur Henry Mee was an English writer, journalist and educator. He is best known for The Harmsworth Self-Educator, The Children's Encyclopædia, The Children's Newspaper, and The King's England. The vast majority of the content is a description of churches and associated local worthies. The tone is looking back to the time of the Great War, even during publication of volumes in the 1940s. He produced other works, most of which had what would today be described as an overly patriotic tone, particularly when discussing the countryside or subjects from history.
Mee left school at 14 to join a local newspaper, where he became an editor by age 20. He contributed many non-fiction articles to magazines and joined the staff of The Daily Mail in 1898. He was made literary editor five years later. In 1903 he began working for publisher Alfred Harmsworth's Amalgamated Press. He was appointed general editor of The Harmsworth Self-Educator, in collaboration with John Hammerton. In 1908 he began work on The Children's Encyclopædia, which came out as a fortnightly magazine. The series was published and bound in eight volumes soon afterwards, and later expanded to ten volumes. After the success of The Children's Encyclopædia, he started the first newspaper published for children, the weekly Children's Newspaper, which was published until 1965. Mee also wrote London – Heart of the Empire and Wonder of the World, which became a very popular book. Although he made money from these works, he did not receive a fair share. He had a large house built overlooking the hills near Eynsford in Kent. Its development from design to the final building was depicted in later editions of The Children's Encyclopædia. Mee had one child, but, despite his work, declared that he had no particular affinity with children. His works for them suggest that his interest was in trying to encourage the raising of a generation of patriotic and moral citizens. He came from a Baptist upbringing, and supported the temperance movement.
Death and legacy
He died in London aged 67. His books continued to be published after his death, most notably The King's England, a guide to the counties of England. Mee's works were successful abroad. The Children's Encyclopædia was translated into Chinese and sold well in the United States under the title The Book of Knowledge. Mee exhibited a number of prejudices in his writing, notably anti-Catholic and anti-intellectual. His writing dwells on the casualties of the Great War.
