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In the 1870s, Macmillan publishers began to issue a series of books called 'English Men of Letters' – biographies of English writers by other English writers. The general editor of the series was the journalist, critic, politician and supporter (and later biographer) of Gladstone, John Morley (1838–1923). The first volume published was Samuel Johnson, by Leslie Stephen (1878), and the first series (which continued until 1892) eventually consisted of 39 volumes. The aim was to provide a short introduction to each subject and his works, but also that the life should illuminate the works, and vice versa. All the subjects were men, as were all but one of the authors (Mrs Oliphant on Sheridan); and all but one (Hawthorne) were English or Irish. The subjects range chronologically from Chaucer to Thackeray and Dickens, and an important feature of the series is that many of the authors (Henry James on Hawthorne, Ward on Dickens) were discussing writers of the previous generation, and some (Trollope on Thackeray) had even known their subjects personally. The series exemplifies the British approach to literary biography and criticism at the end of the nineteenth century and also reveals which authors were at that time regarded as canonical.

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39 results in Cambridge Library Collection - English Men of Letters

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Thomas Carlyle
  • John Nichol
  • Published online:
    05 October 2012
    Print publication:
    17 November 2011
    First published in:
    1892
  • 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' does not attempt to gloss over the notorious difficulties of Carlyle's personality. Several chapters are devoted to the reception of his works, their influence and the likelihood of their continuing importance: Nichol concludes that Carlyle was 'in truth, a prophet, and he has left his gospels'.

Keats
  • Sidney Colvin
  • Published online:
    05 September 2012
    Print publication:
    17 November 2011
    First published in:
    1887
  • Sir Sidney Colvin (1845–1927) was the obvious choice to write a book on John Keats (1795–1821) for the first series of English Men of Letters. At various times Slade Professor of Fine Art at Cambridge, Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, and Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum, Colvin had a long-standing interest in the poet, publishing an edition of his letters to family and friends in 1891, and later writing a longer biography, published in 1917. This introduction to the poet, which used print and manuscript sources not available to earlier biographers, was first published in 1887. In his preface, Colvin admits that 'I have not attempted to avoid saying over again much that in substance has been said already, and better, by others … I hope to have contributed something of my own towards a fuller understanding both of Keats's art and life'.

Sir Philip Sidney
  • John Addington Symonds
  • Published online:
    05 December 2011
    Print publication:
    03 November 2011
    First published in:
    1886
  • Sir Philip Sidney (1554–86) was an English poet and courtier who is now seen as one of the most influential English writers of the sixteenth century. Born into a politically active family, Sidney is best known for his works Astrophel and Stella, a story in sonnet form which popularised this literary genre in England, and Arcadia, a romance which was the first English vernacular work to be published on the continent. This volume, published in the first series of English Men of Letters in 1886 by literary scholar John Addington Symonds (1840–93), provides a concise biography of a fascinating character. Describing Sidney's childhood, European travels and time spent as a courtier, and his heroic death, this biography draws together previous scholarship on Sidney to provide a valuable account of his life and of contemporary English and continental influences on his work.

Bacon
  • Richard William Church
  • Published online:
    05 October 2012
    Print publication:
    17 November 2011
    First published in:
    1884
  • This introduction to the life and works of Francis Bacon (1561–1626) was published in the first series of English Men of Letters in 1884. The author, R. W. Church (1815–90), who also wrote on Spenser for this series, begins forcefully: 'The life of Francis Bacon is one which it is a pain to write or to read. It is the life of a man endowed with as rare a combination of noble gifts as ever was bestowed on a human intellect … And yet it was not only an unhappy life; it was a poor life.' Church, while paying the highest tribute to Bacon's intellectual achievements in so many different fields, argues that 'there was in Bacon's 'self' a deep and fatal flaw. He was a pleaser of men.' He believed that this work should correct the adulatory stance adopted by earlier biographers, and reveal the whole, imperfect man.

Addison
  • William Courthope
  • Published online:
    05 November 2011
    Print publication:
    03 November 2011
    First published in:
    1884
  • W. J. Courthope's biography of politician and writer Joseph Addison (1672–1719) was published in 1884 in the first series of English Men of Letters. Educated at Harrow and Oxford, Courthope (1842–1917) was elected fellow of the British Academy in 1907. His scholarly works include a biography and edition of the works of Alexander Pope. This work begins not with an account of Addison's birth and childhood but instead with an essay on 'The State of English Society and Letters after the Restoration', contextualising a writer whose periodical essays were still widely read and enjoyed in the late nineteenth century. The book focuses more on Addison's literary career than his political activity in support of the Whigs, devoting chapters to his work for The Tatler, The Spectator (which he co-founded with Richard Steele) and The Guardian, his tragedy Cato, and his notorious quarrel with Pope.

Coleridge
  • Henry Duff Traill
  • Published online:
    05 September 2012
    Print publication:
    24 November 2011
    First published in:
    1884
  • The publication in 1798 of Lyrical Ballads, written by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834), is considered to be the starting point of the Romantic movement. Published in the first series of English Men of Letters in 1884, this biography by H. D. Traill (1842–1900), who also wrote on Sterne for the series, sets Coleridge's work within the context of his troubled childhood, his travels, and the depression and financial crises that plagued his life. The first writer to attempt a detailed account of Coleridge's life and work - which ranged from poetry, journalism and literary criticism to history, philosophy and theology - Traill admits to some difficulty in tracing source material, particularly as Coleridge's theological and philosophical writings were largely incomplete, and remained unpublished at his death. Nonetheless he reveals something of both the writer and also the man famously described by Lamb as 'an Archangel a little damaged'.

Fielding
  • Austin Dobson
  • Published online:
    05 November 2011
    Print publication:
    27 October 2011
    First published in:
    1883
  • 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 from his schooldays at Eton to the production of his first play, and his subsequent careers as a writer, magistrate and controversialist, until his death in Portugal (where he had travelled in the hope that the climate would improve his health) in October 1754.

Sheridan
  • Margaret Oliphant
  • Published online:
    05 November 2011
    Print publication:
    27 October 2011
    First published in:
    1883
  • 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 orator. He defended the French Revolution and supported American colonists against British colonial policy. Oliphant's biography covers Sheridan's youth, dramatic writing, political career and middle age; her vivid and sympathetic portrayal provides a valuable insight into his remarkable life.

Macaulay
  • J. Cotter Morison
  • Published online:
    05 February 2012
    Print publication:
    03 November 2011
    First published in:
    1882
  • 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) introduces readers to the main influences on Macaulay's life and work from his childhood, through his days at Trinity College, Cambridge, to the writing of his History. The result is a sympathetic and detailed portrait of a man whose life was shaped by literature.

Bentley
  • R. C. Jebb
  • Published online:
    07 September 2010
    Print publication:
    22 April 2010
    First published in:
    1882
  • First published in 1882, this is a biography of the English clergyman, scholar and classicist, Richard Bentley (1662–1742). Born in West Yorkshire, educated at Wakefield Grammar School and later at St John's College in Cambridge, Bentley became one of the most respected textual critics of his day. Among students of the Greek New Testament, he is remembered as the first person to define a plan for constructing the whole of the text directly from the original documents. Bentley became a prominent and controversial figure during his time as Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. His temper and his contemptuous treatment of his colleagues led to various attempts to secure his removal and embroiled him in controversy and feuding for the next 30 years. Despite all this, Bentley continued his classical research and published books that are studied to this day.

Dickens
  • Adolphus William Ward
  • Published online:
    05 April 2013
    Print publication:
    03 November 2011
    First published in:
    1882
  • Published in the first series of English Men of Letters in 1882, this biography of Charles Dickens (1812–70) provides a short introduction to the life and works of the most popular author of the Victorian era. Sir Adolphus William Ward (1837–1924), a prominent scholar who taught at the newly founded the University of Manchester and became President of the British Academy, wrote on English literature from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries, and translated Curtius' History of Greece. His work complements earlier biographies of the writer who styled himself as 'The Inimitable' and whose influence as a novelist, social commentator and social reformer cannot be overstated. The life is treated chronologically, and a final chapter discusses 'the future of Dickens' fame', concluding that although he has faults as a novelist, his place in the canon of English literature is secure.

Charles Lamb
  • Alfred Ainger
  • Published online:
    05 November 2011
    Print publication:
    03 November 2011
    First published in:
    1882
  • Written by clergyman Alfred Ainger (1837–1904), this 1882 biography of writer Charles Lamb (1775–1834) is the twenty-first book in the first series of 'English Men of Letters'. Charles Lamb began publishing his poetry in the late 1790s. Both he and his sister Mary (1764–1847), who had been released into Charles' care after killing their mother in a fit of insanity in 1796, began writing for children with the encouragement of William Godwin, their works including the Tales from Shakespeare (1807) for which they are best known. Lamb was also widely regarded for his skill as an essayist, and particularly for his Essays of Elia. Ainger devoted much of his career to Lamb's life and writings, including a six-volume edited collection of Lamb's work. His biography focuses on Lamb's literary output and his place as a critic as well as the events of the writer's life.

Sterne
  • Henry Duff Traill
  • Published online:
    05 November 2011
    Print publication:
    03 November 2011
    First published in:
    1882
  • Lawrence Sterne (1713–69) was an Anglican clergyman best remembered as the author of the satirical and highly influential novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. After his ordination in 1738, Sterne led the life of a country vicar in Yorkshire, publishing a few satirical works before his masterpiece, which emerged in nine volumes between 1759 and 1767. The first two volumes were an immediate success, bringing him wealth, fame, and a place at the heart of contemporary English literary society. This work, published in the first series of English Men of Letters in 1882 by the journalist (and editor of Carlyle) Henry Duff Traill (1842–1900), provides a clear and informative biography. Drawing on Sterne's detailed letters to his daughter, Traill provides a fascinating account of Sterne's early life and his clerical career together with an analysis of his writing and influence upon English literature.

Swift
  • Leslie Stephen
  • Published online:
    05 November 2011
    Print publication:
    03 November 2011
    First published in:
    1882
  • Sir Leslie Stephen (1832–1904) came from a distinguished family of politicians, jurists and writers, and was the father of Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf. His literary career began with writing about his great passion, the Alps, and he became a noted author and critic, and the first editor of the Dictionary of National Biography. He was a friend of John Morley (1838–1923), the general editor of English Men of Letters, who commissioned him to write three biographies for the first series, on Swift, Pope and Johnson. Stephen is very interested in the family connections and history of Jonathan Swift (1667–1745), the great satirist and moralist, and he blends direct sources with general conclusions in an informal style which makes the work (first published in 1882) of continuing interest today. Stephen's Sketches from Cambridge, published anonymously in 1865, is also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection.

Gray
  • Edmund Gosse
  • Published online:
    05 November 2011
    Print publication:
    27 October 2011
    First published in:
    1882
  • Thomas Gray (1716–71) was one of the most influential poets of the eighteenth century, and is probably best remembered today for his Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard. In this biography of Gray, first published in the first 'English Men of Letters' series in 1882, poet and critic Edmund Gosse (1849–1928) delivers a sympathetic account of his subject, offering both a traditional chronological narrative of Gray's life, from his schooldays at Eton, through his travels abroad and his academic career at Cambridge (though he was appointed professor of modern history in 1768, failing health meant that he never delivered any lectures), and an analysis of his poetry. In the book's last chapter, Gosse laments the lack of recognition that Gray had received in England since his death: Dr Johnson is criticised especially for his writings on Gray - 'barren and meagre of fact to the last degree'.

De Quincey
  • David Masson
  • Published online:
    05 November 2011
    Print publication:
    03 November 2011
    First published in:
    1881
  • Combining intellectual enthusiasm with analytical bite, David Masson's biography of the self-confessed opium eater provides readers with valuable insights into an author whose life oscillated between respectability, vagrancy and infamy. Published in the first series of English Men of Letters in 1881, only two decades after the death of Thomas de Quincey (1785–1859), and written by a man who, like his subject in his more prosperous years, was a journalist and editor in the heart of literary London, Masson's account describes a man and a nation at the peak of their cultural influence. Covering not only the Confessions, but also his less well known essays in the London Magazine, Blackwood's, the Edinburgh Saturday Post and the Instructor, this literary portrait places the life - debts and drug use, but also fame, success and the friendship of some of the greatest writers of the age - in the context of the works.

Landor
  • Sidney Colvin
  • Published online:
    05 December 2011
    Print publication:
    03 November 2011
    First published in:
    1881
  • Published in 1881 in the first series of English Men of Letters, this biography by Sir Sidney Colvin of the poet Walter Savage Landor (1775–1864) opens with the claim 'few men have ever impressed their peers so much, or the general public so little'. Landor's turbulent life included suspension from both Rugby and Oxford, numerous love affairs, an illegitimate child, and frequent legal trouble over his writing, including a libel case which caused him to leave England permanently. He is best known for his six-volume Imaginary Conversations, a series of dialogues between characters ranging from antiquity to Landor's literary contemporaries. This book not only describes Landor's life but also discusses his poetry and prose. Colvin (1845–1927), who was director of the Fitzwilliam Museum and later keeper of prints and drawings at the British Museum, also wrote the volume on Keats in this series.

Wordsworth
  • F. W. H. Myers
  • Published online:
    05 October 2012
    Print publication:
    24 November 2011
    First published in:
    1881
  • 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 marked the transition from neoclassicism to Romanticism. Showing Wordsworth to be widely respected as 'so much besides a poet', Myers describes the circumstances in which Wordsworth accepted the Laureateship in 1843, an apparent surrender to 'the establishment' which poets such as Robert Browning regarded as a betrayal of his own earlier radical idealism.

Dryden
  • George Saintsbury
  • Published online:
    05 December 2011
    Print publication:
    03 November 2011
    First published in:
    1881
  • John Dryden (1631–1700) was an English poet and playwright, whose works led to the English Restoration period becoming known as 'The Age of Dryden'. Published in 1881 in the first series of English Men of Letters, this biography by George Saintsbury (1845–1933), author and critic, sets Dryden's work against the literary landscape of its time, arguing that he reformed English literature, and exploring how he did so, the nature of the reform, and Dryden's contribution to literary history. He shows Dryden to have been a man without moral, political or intellectual agendas who, while not achieving perfection, created works free of elitism and which therefore had far wider relevance to the ordinary man than those of his predecessors. This leads Saintsbury to conclude that while Dryden was no extraordinary genius, he deserves to be considered the greatest craftsman in English letters.

Byron
  • John Nichol
  • Published online:
    05 October 2012
    Print publication:
    24 November 2011
    First published in:
    1880
  • George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788–1824) is regarded as one of Britain's greatest poets. As famous for his personality as he was for his poetry, he was rebellious, extravagant and controversial, his life peppered with scandal. First published in the English Men of Letters series in 1880, this biography by John Nichol (1833–94), who also wrote on Carlyle for the series, argues that while Byron did not shape the Romantic era, his work was still highly influential on his contemporaries. Setting Byron's work in an historical context, Nichol shows how the society of his time both idolised him and condemned him as a moral outcast; he was also greatly admired for his efforts for the liberation of Greece from the Ottoman Empire, during which he died. Nichol also discusses the creation of the 'Byronic hero', as much a reflection of Byron's flamboyant persona as an invented literary character.

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