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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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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.

Sir Walter Scott
  • Richard Holt Hutton
  • Published online:
    05 April 2013
    Print publication:
    27 October 2011
    First published in:
    1878
  • 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 of Letters', this biography by the journalist Richard H. Hutton (1826–97) tells Scott's story from his childhood and ancestry, through his early years as an advocate to his extraordinary fame and success as a writer, through bankruptcy to recovery, and his final days.

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'.

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.

Burke
  • John Morley
  • Published online:
    05 October 2012
    Print publication:
    17 November 2011
    First published in:
    1879
  • This volume on Edmund Burke (1729–97), published in 1879 in the first series of English Men of Letters, was written by the general editor of the series, John Morley (1838–1923). Himself a politician as well as an author, Morley had previously published a 'historical study' of Burke in 1867, but emphasises in an introductory note that this book 'is biographical rather than critical' and is intended as a narrative life. Morley himself was a radical in politics, and his interest in Burke, who he does not hesitate to characterise on occasion as a narrow-minded reactionary, may seem surprising, but he greatly admired his subject's independent political stance, which he describes as a mixture of utilitarian liberalism and historic conservatism, unfettered by abstract doctrine, and which he believed might again come to dominate political discourse in the last decades of the nineteenth century.

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.

Chaucer
  • Adolphus William Ward
  • Published online:
    05 October 2012
    Print publication:
    24 November 2011
    First published in:
    1879
  • This biography of Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1340–1400) was published in the first series of English Men of Letters in 1879. Its author, Sir Adolphus William Ward (1837–1924), a prominent scholar who became President of the British Academy, wrote on English literature from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries, translated Curtius' History of Greece, and was a historian of both Britain and Germany. He approached the task of writing Chaucer's life as a historian rather than as a literary critic, emphasising the archival sources from which information on Chaucer the man, the civil servant and the courtier could be drawn, and placing the life very much in the context of the times. An epilogue discusses the legacy of the 'father of English poetry' to the poets and dramatists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and the renewal of interest in Chaucer's works in the nineteenth century.

Cowper
  • Goldwin Smith
  • Published online:
    05 October 2012
    Print publication:
    24 November 2011
    First published in:
    1880
  • This biography of William Cowper by Goldwin Smith (1823–1910) was published in the first series of English Men of Letters in 1880 (this reissue being from the 'ninth thousand' of 1881). Smith states in his opening chapter that Cowper (1731–1800) 'is the most important English poet of the period between Pope and the illustrious group headed by Wordsworth, Byron and Shelley … he may perhaps himself be numbered among the precursors of the Revolution, though he was certainly the mildest of them all'. He also regards Cowper as the great poet of the religious revival of the eighteenth century. Smith himself was an Oxford-educated historian who wrote for the Saturday Review among other periodicals. He was appointed Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford in 1858, and later taught at Cornell University, before settling in Canada, where he wrote widely on historical, constitutional and religious topics.

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.

Locke
  • Thomas Fowler
  • Published online:
    05 October 2012
    Print publication:
    17 November 2011
    First published in:
    1880
  • This biography of the philosopher John Locke (1632–1704) was published in the first series of English Men of Letters in 1880. Its author, Thomas Fowler (1832–1904) held the posts of Wykeham Professor of Logic, President of Corpus Christi College, and Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University; the editor of the series, John Morley, had been his pupil. The influence of Locke is pervasive in many fields - theology, education, psychology, economics and political theory as well as philosophy - and Fowler analyses the effect of his writings in five chapters (one dedicated to the Essay Concerning Human Understanding) as well as giving a chronological account of Locke's life from his obscure beginnings through his time at Oxford, his role in the household of the earl of Shaftesbury, and his two periods of travel in Europe, to a position at the heart of political and intellectual life in Restoration England.

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'.

Milton
  • Mark Pattison
  • Published online:
    05 September 2012
    Print publication:
    24 November 2011
    First published in:
    1879
  • This life of John Milton was first published in the English Men of Letters series in 1879. Its author, Mark Pattison (1813–84) spent most of his adult life in Oxford, as a student, a tutor, and eventually, from 1861, Rector of Lincoln College. Pattison's scholarly interest in religious thought in England, and in the history of classical learning after the Renaissance, made him the ideal biographer for the poet whose writing life was spent in justifying God's ways to man, and whose knowledge of Greek and Latin literature was almost unmatched. Pattison sees the life as divided into three periods: he provides a narrative of events and an analysis of Milton's literary output (both verse and prose) for each. The final chapter is a discussion of the major poems: Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes, concluding with the assertion of Milton's supremacy over all English writers except Shakespeare.

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'.

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.

Thackeray
  • Anthony Trollope
  • Published online:
    05 January 2012
    Print publication:
    03 November 2011
    First published in:
    1879
  • Written by the novelist Anthony Trollope (1815–82), who had been a friend of William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–63) since 1860, and originally published in 1879 in the first series of English Men of Letters, this book surveys the life and works of the author of Vanity Fair. It remains a useful introductory text about an author who is still popular today, and offers insights into Victorian assumptions about novel writing, as well as providing an account of Thackeray's life and career which benefits from Trollope's personal knowledge of his subject. A prolific author of both fiction and non-fiction, Trollope is best remembered today for his 'social comedy' novels. In this biography, he addresses what he describes as every reader's desire to know not only the works, but the man behind them.

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.

Alexander Pope
  • Leslie Stephen
  • Published online:
    05 December 2011
    Print publication:
    03 November 2011
    First published in:
    1880
  • Blending history with literary criticism and general reflections with hard facts, this biography from 1880, which places the man in the context of his greatest works, remains a useful starting-point for the study of Pope, not least because it gives an overview of earlier biographies. 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's Sketches from Cambridge, published anonymously in 1865, is also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection.

Robert Burns
  • John Campbell Shairp
  • Published online:
    05 December 2011
    Print publication:
    03 November 2011
    First published in:
    1879
  • Like other works in the first series of English Men of Letters, Shairp's 1879 biography of Robert Burns (1759–96) is a work of both history and literary criticism that can be used as an entry point to a wider study of its subject. Literary scholar John Campbell Shairp (1819–85) was born in Linlithgowshire and educated at Oxford. His publications include the essay collection Culture and Religion (1870) and Studies in Poetry and Philosophy (1868), both of which ran to multiple editions. In 1877 he was elected Professor of Poetry at Oxford, and held that chair in conjunction with the principalship of the United College of St Andrews until his death. With the insights of a historian and a poet, Shairp explores Burns' life through places lived in and travelled to, before turning to the 'characters, poems, and songs' of a poet widely admired in the late Victorian period.

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.

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.

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