Historian, essayist and poet, Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800 59) is described by his biographer as possessing a mind that was born wise and nurtured to a state of brilliance. With an ability to imbue his most scholarly works with a narrative power 'on a level with that of the greatest masters of prose fiction', Macaulay's multi-volume History of England assured his fame in middle-class Victorian households. Nevertheless, few today are familiar with the author's personal history. Published in the first series of English Men of Letters in 1882, this biography by James Cotter Morison (1832 88)...

Described by his biographer as the author of 'monumental and supreme' histories, Edward Gibbon (1737 94) is widely acknowledged as a major figure of the Enlightenment and the father of modern historical scholarship. However, despite these epithets, the personal life of one of the eighteenth century's most successful authors remains unknown to many of his readers. Published in the first series of English Men of Letters in 1878 (and going into a second edition in the same year), this biography by James Cotter Morison (1832 88) provides a learned but accessible account of the man who wrote The...

Written by Scottish novelist William Black (1841 98), this biography of the Irish-born poet, dramatist and novelist Oliver Goldsmith (c.1728 74) was published in 1878 as the sixth book in the first series of English Men of Letters. Goldsmith is best known for his novel The Vicar of Wakefield (1766) and the play She Stoops to Conquer (1771), as well as his close association with Samuel Johnson, James Boswell, and William Hogarth. The biography is a colourful one: as Black observes, Goldsmith, who was trained as a physician but whose whole career was in literature, possessed a 'happy knack of...

Published in the first series of English Men of Letters in 1879, a time when a complete edition of Daniel Defoe's works was yet to be collated, this biograhical account by William Minto (1845 93) was a significant achievement in literary scholarship as well as an engaging portrait of a colourful and outspoken polemicist. Himself a journalist and essayist for the pioneering Pall Mall Gazette and the Daily News, Minto combines the critical insight of a literary scholar with the empathy and understanding of a fellow writer. Spanning the novelist's entire life (c. 1659 1731), from the passions of...

The publication in 1798 of Lyrical Ballads, written by William Wordsworth (1770 1850) and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, is considered to have launched the Romantic movement. Published in 1881 in the first series of 'English Men of Letters', this biography of Wordsworth by classical scholar and psychical researcher F. W. H. Myers (1843 1901) shows how Wordsworth's profound imagination and thought characterised and shaped his literary era. He discusses the influence of Wordsworth's upbringing and love for the natural world on works such as The Excursion, and The Prelude, which are said to have...

This critical essay and biography by Henry James (1843 1916) of his fellow American novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804 64), today best remembered for The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables, was published in the first 'English Men of Letters' series in 1879, and is notable for being the only volume in that series devoted to an American. It is now recognised as being one of the first critical studies of an American writer, and it remains an important work for students and admirers both of James and of Hawthorne. In his critical assessment, James, whose own writing was strongly...

Sir Walter Scott (1771 1832) is famous for his poetry and historical romances such as Ivanhoe and Rob Roy. As the first English-language author to achieve truly international fame in his lifetime, his depiction of Scottish history and culture spread around the world so effectively that it persists even today. Scott also contributed to Scottish history himself: in 1818 he helped to unearth Scotland's missing crown jewels, and he also led the campaign that saved the Scottish banknote when the London Parliament threatened its existence. First published in 1878 in the first series of 'English Men...

This biography of Thomas Carlyle (1795 1881) was published in the first series of English Men of Letters in 1892. The author, John Nichol (1833 94), who also wrote on Byron for the series, was an author, poet and critic who was for many years professor of English literature at the University of Glasgow, and who moved in the same intellectual circles as Carlyle, though as he states in his prefatory note, he knew him only slightly. Nichol acknowledges his indebtedness in this work to J. A. Froude, Carlyle's friend, disciple and biographer, but his portrait of the 'master spirit of his time'...

At the outset of this book, published in the first 'English Men of Letters' series in 1883, the poet and author Austin Dobson (1840 1921) declares his intention to restrict himself to giving a 'purely biographical' account of the life of the lawyer, novelist and dramatist Henry Fielding (1707 54). Fielding is probably best remembered today for his novels Joseph Andrews and The History of Tom Jones (1749), but in his own day he was famous not only for his writings in many different genres but also for his work as an innovatory Justice of the Peace in London. Dobson recounts Fielding's life...

The Scots novelist Margaret Oliphant (1828 97) published this biography of the playwright and poet Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751 1816) in the first 'English Men of Letters' series in 1883. Sheridan is best known for his plays The Rivals, A Trip to Scarborough, and The School for Scandal, which was his most popular work among his contemporaries. Sheridan was also at one point the owner of the famous Theatre Royal on Drury Lane, which he purchased with his father-in-law in 1776. He led a radical political career, becoming a Whig MP in 1780 and quickly developing a reputation as a brilliant...