James Rice (1843-1882) was an English novelist. Born in Northampton and educated at Cambridge University, he became a lawyer at Lincoln's Inn in 1871. There, he befriended Walter Besant, with whom he would collaborate on over a dozen popular novels and short story collections, included The Golden Butterfly (1876). Their prolific working relationship ended in tragedy in 1882 with Rice's untimely death I Redhill, Surrey.
