Frederick Tennyson claims continued interest not only as an older brother of the laureate but as an educated Victorian who was a skilled poet in Greek and English, who accumulated a vast knowledge of ancient Greek literature and history, and who developed a substantial interest in spiritualism. His explorations of Swedenborgianism, astrology, and psychic phenomena are especially interesting, although not wholly unusual for his time. His career is also remarkable for its great efflorescence in his ninth decade.

Frederick Tennyson was born in 1807 in Louth, Lincolnshire, the second child (but the first to live) of the Reverend George Clayton Tennyson and Elizabeth Fytche Tennyson. Early in 1808, the Tennysons moved to Somersby to live in a rectory which had been enlarged for them by Mr. Tennyson's father, also named George Tennyson, who was an ambitious and prosperous attorney and landowner. By the time Frederick was twelve, he had six...