Blackmore's one famous story gave a name to a brand of cookies, to several British pubs, and to hundreds of baby girls born throughout the English-speaking world near the turn of the century. Lorna Doone (1869) even caused a legendary place--the "Doone Valley"--to appear on the official maps of Exmoor in southwestern England. A window in Exeter Cathedral pictures the heroine, the rustic hero, and the outlaw-villain in miniature; tourists still come by the busload each year to visit the little church at Oare where Lorna was supposedly shot down at the altar. The story has appeared as a movie, a BBC television serial, and a classic comic. Yet the author of this "Romance of Exmoor" remains obscure, with most of his other books out of print and unread, even though they once gave him a claim to be considered with George Eliot and Thomas Hardy as an...