Mrs. Humphry Ward, née Mary Augusta Arnold (born June 11, 1851, Tasmania, Australia—died March 24, 1920, London, England), eng novelist whose best-known work, Robert Elsmere, created a sensation in its day by advocating a Christianity based on social concern rather than theology. The book begins: "A stifling hot day! General Hobson lifted his hat and mopped his forehead indignantly. What on earth this place can be like in June I can't conceive! The tenth of April, and I'll be bound the thermometer's somewhere near eighty in the shade. You never find the eng climate playing you these tricks. Roger Barnes looked at his uncle with amusement. Don't you like heat, Uncle Archie? Ah, but I forgot, it's American heat."