STEEVENS, GEORGE WARRINGTON (1869–1900), journalist, son of James Steevens, was born at Sydenham on 10 Dec. 1869. He was educated at the City of London school, where he greatly distinguished himself in classics. He was captain of the school in 1887–8, and was elected in 1888 scholar of Balliol College, Oxford. At Balliol he fully maintained his reputation as a classical scholar. He was placed in the first class both in classical moderations and in the final classical school, and during the same period obtained the highest honours at each of the three examinations held in connection with the B.A. degree at the university of London. He graduated B.A. at both Oxford and London in 1892. In 1893 he was elected fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford. Although shy and retiring in general society, Steevens developed in his undergraduate days, both as a talker and as a writer in undergraduate periodicals, a wayward brilliance and amusing tendency to paradox.
Meanwhile at Cambridge, where he had many school friends, he made the acquaintance of Mr. Oscar Browning, fellow of King's College, whose liberal opinions attracted him. In the early autumn of 1892 he helped Mr. Browning in his candidature for the representation in parliament of East Worcestershire, and cleverly edited an electioneering paper in the constituency in the liberal interest. At the same period he made his first appearance in the London press with an original paper on 'The other View of Barnum,' which appeared in 'The Speaker.' At the beginning of Lent term, 1893, some friends at Cambridge who since the preceding May had conducted a weekly periodical called 'The Cambridge Observer,' invited Steevens to edit it. He edited the last seven numbers, and these evinced unmistakable talents for vivid journalism of literary quality. At the same time he began a connection with the 'National Observer,' a brilliant weekly London paper, of which Mr. W. E. Henley was editor. Mr. Henley formed a high opinion of Steevens's abilities and personality, and a friendship sprang up between them which lasted till Steevens's death.
In the early summer of 1893 Steevens went to London and definitely adopted the calling of a journalist. He joined the staff of the 'Pall Mall Gazette,' of which Mr. W. W. Astor had just become proprietor, and Mr. Henry Gust editor. Steevens proved a first-rate contributor of literary and descriptive articles, which, if not always convincing, rarely lacked the saving graces of originality and independence. While writing in the 'Pall Mall Gazette' he became a frequent contributor of essays to the 'New Review,' of which his friend Mr. Henley had become editor in 1894, and to 'Blackwood's Magazine.' In his contributions to these magazines Steevens's literary power was seen to the best advantage. In 1895 he published a volume of realistic 'Monologues of the Dead,' portions of which had already appeared in periodicals; the speakers are classical heroes and heroines who express themselves with too studied a crudeness and carelessness of language win complete success. A second volume next year on 'Naval Policy' (1896), which had also been contributed serially to periodicals, illustrated the growth of Steevens's political interests, and the decay of his youthful sympathies with current liberalism.
When in 1895 Mr. Gust, the editor of the 'Pall Mall Gazette,' resigned his position, Steevens left the office with him. In 1896 he joined the staff of the 'Daily Mail,' a new London daily paper, founded by Mr. Alfred Harmsworth, who acted as editor. After he had written in London many miscellaneous descriptive articles, Mr. Harmsworth gave Steevens his first commission to serve as a special correspondent abroad. He was ordered to the United States to report for the 'Daily Mail' the progress of the presidential election, which Mr. W. J. Bryan vainly contested against Mr. William McKinley. Steevens expanded his articles into a spirited account of America, which was published in 1897 under the title of 'The Land of the Dollar.' This proved the best of a long series of similar volumes. In the same year Steevens had his first experience as a war correspondent. Joining the Turkish army under Edhem Pasha he described the Græco-Turkish war in Thessaly, and his articles were republished under the title of 'With the Conquering Turk.' In the summer he went to Germany, and sent home some sketches of German life, which were republished, with other sketches of London and Paris from the 'Daily Mail,' in 'Glimpses of Three Nations' (posthumously issued). At the end of 1897 he visited Egypt, and the result was the volume called 'Egypt in 1898.' In 1898 he returned to Egypt to join as war correspondent the army which was sent out under General (afterwards Lord)
