Great Writers series

The Great Writers series was a collection of literary biographies published in London from 1887, by Walter Scott & Co. The founding editor was Eric Sutherland Robertson, followed by Frank T. Marzials.[1][2][3]

The stated intention, articulated by Robertson, was that the series should constitute fact-based textbooks of English literature.[4] He advocated analytical and scholarly methods of literary study.[5] The works generally contained a bibliography, compiled by John Parker Anderson of the British Museum.[6]

A comparable French series also began publication in 1887, edited by Jean Jules Jusserand, under the title Les Grands Écrivains Français. Its inspiration was John Morley's English Men of Letters, published from 1880.[7] Oscar Wilde called the Great Writers series "unfortunate", but suggested that Anderson's bibliographies were of value, and should be collected up.[8] His dislike of the restrictions on authors extended also to the English Men of Letters.[9] Other series in imitation of English Men of Letters were English Worthies (Longman) and Literary Lives (Hodder).[10]

Year Subject Author Comment
1887Henry Wadsworth LongfellowEric Sutherland Robertson[11]
1887Samuel Taylor ColeridgeHall Caine[12][13]"a sound and, within its scope, comprehensive volume"[14]
1887Charles DickensFrank T. Marzials[15]
1887Dante Gabriel RossettiJoseph Knight[16]
1887Samuel JohnsonFrancis Richard Charles Grant[17]
1887Charles DarwinGeorge Thomas Bettany[18]
1887Charlotte BrontëAugustine Birrell[19]
1887Thomas CarlyleRichard Garnett[20]
1887Tobias George SmollettDavid Hannay[21][22]
1887Adam SmithRichard Haldane[23]
1887John KeatsWilliam Michael Rossetti[24]
1887Percy Bysshe ShelleyWilliam Sharp[25]
1888Oliver GoldsmithAustin Dobson[26]
1888Walter ScottCharles Duke Yonge[27]
1888Robert BurnsJohn Stuart Blackie[28]
1888Victor HugoFrank T. Marzials[29]
1888Ralph Waldo EmersonRichard Garnett[30]
1888Johann Wolfgang von GoetheJames Sime[31]
1888William CongreveEdmund Gosse[32]
1888John BunyanEdmund Venables[33]
1888George CrabbeThomas Edward Kebbel[34]"Cheap, short and unsympathetic"[35]
1888Heinrich HeineWilliam Sharp[35]
1889John Stuart MillW. L. Courtney[36]"although not negligible, is of very minor importance"[37]
1889Friedrich SchillerHenry Woodd Nevinson[38]
1889Frederick MarryatDavid Hannay[39]
1889Honoré de BalzacFrederick Wedmore[40][41]
1889Gotthold Ephraim LessingT. W. Rolleston[42]
1890John MiltonRichard Garnett
1890George EliotOscar Browning[43]Largely criticism
1890Jane Austen (1890)Goldwyn Smith[44]"signifies the recognition of Austen as a standard classic author"[45]
1890Robert BrowningWilliam Sharp[46]
1890Lord ByronRoden Noel[47][48]
1890Nathaniel HawthorneMoncure Conway[49]
1890Arthur SchopenhauerWilliam Wallace[50]
1890Richard Brinsley SheridanLloyd C. Sanders[51]
1890Henry ThoreauHenry Shakespear Stephens Salt[52]revised edition 1896[52]
1891William Makepeace ThackerayHerman Charles Merivale and Frank Marzials[53]
1891Miguel de CervantesHenry Edward Watts[54]
1892VoltaireFrancis Espinasse[55]
1893James Leigh HuntCosmo Monkhouse[56]"most careful, but not entirely sympathetic"[57]
1893John Greenleaf WhittierWilliam James Linton[58]
1895Ernest RenanFrancis Espinasse[59]

Two further lives from the same publisher, of John Ruskin (1910) by Ashmore Wingate,[60] and of Maurice Maeterlinck (1913) by Jethro Bithell,[61] do not conform to the pattern of the series.

Notes
  1. Anonymous (1979). Writers' and artists' year-book. Рипол Классик. p. 59. ISBN 978-5-87872-776-1.
  2. George Alexander Kennedy; A. Walton Litz (10 August 2000). The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism: Volume 7, Modernism and the New Criticism. Cambridge University Press. p. 381. ISBN 978-0-521-30012-4.
  3. Roger W. Peattie (1 November 2010). Selected Letters of William Michael Rossetti. Penn State Press. p. 466 note 6. ISBN 978-0-271-04424-8.
  4. Gary Day (4 July 2008). Literary Criticism: A New History: A New History. Edinburgh University Press. p. 288. ISBN 978-0-7486-2852-0.
  5. C. Atherton (27 September 2005). Defining Literary Criticism: Scholarship, Authority and the Possession of Literary Knowledge, 1880-2002. Palgrave Macmillan UK. p. 81. ISBN 978-0-230-50107-2.
  6. s:The Times/1925/Obituary/Death of J. P. Anderson
  7. Warren Staebler (8 December 2015). Liberal Mind of John Morley. Princeton University Press. p. 183. ISBN 978-1-4008-7808-6.
  8. Oscar Wilde (24 September 2008). Reviews: Easyread Large Bold Edition. ReadHowYouWant.com. p. 203. ISBN 978-1-4270-6889-7.
  9. Joanne Shattock (28 January 2010). The Cambridge Companion to English Literature, 1830–1914. Cambridge University Press. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-521-88288-0.
  10. Bernard Lightman, The Many Lives of Charles Darwin: Early Biographies and the Definitive Evolutionist, Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London Vol. 64, No. 4 (20 December 2010), pp. 339–358. Published by: Royal Society. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25802124
  11. A Literary History of America. Ardent Media. pp. 551–. GGKEY:NN3CZKX1NKB.
  12. Vivien Allen (1 July 1997). Hall Caine: Portrait of a Victorian Romancer. A&C Black. p. 433. ISBN 978-1-85075-809-9.
  13. English Prose of the Nineteenth Century. Ardent Media. p. 11. GGKEY:HR1Y0574SCA.
  14. Richard Foulkes (28 June 1997). Church and Stage in Victorian England. Cambridge University Press. p. 205. ISBN 978-0-521-45320-2.
  15. Laurence W. Mazzeno (2008). The Dickens Industry: Critical Perspectives 1836–2005. Camden House. p. 36. ISBN 978-1-57113-317-5.
  16. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (28 August 2014). Delphi Complete Paintings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (Illustrated). Delphi Classics. p. 556. GGKEY:PZB5TACXH2Z.
  17. s:The New International Encyclopædia/Johnson, Samuel (lexicographer)
  18. Bernard V. Lightman; Bennett Zon (29 May 2014). Evolution and Victorian Culture. Cambridge University Press. p. 298. ISBN 978-1-107-02842-5.
  19. Harold Bloom (2009). The Brontës. Infobase Publishing. p. 88. ISBN 978-0-7910-9620-8.
  20. Mark Cumming (January 2004). The Carlyle Encyclopedia. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press. p. 28. ISBN 978-0-8386-3792-0.
  21. Hannay, David (1887). Life of Tobias George Smollett. W. Scott.
  22. Damian Grant (1977). Tobias Smollett: A Study in Style. Manchester University Press. p. 224. ISBN 978-0-7190-0607-4.
  23. The Cambridge History of English Literature Volume X the Age of Johnson. CUP Archive. 1967. p. 512. GGKEY:JJWKSNQUFTU.
  24. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1963). The Rossetti-Macmillan Letters: Some 133 Unpublished Letters Written to Alexander Macmillan, F.S. Ellis, and Others. University of California Press. p. 156. GGKEY:9SA1HGJBSQ5.
  25. Madeleine Callaghan (27 December 2012). The Oxford Handbook of Percy Bysshe Shelley. OUP Oxford. p. 657 note 4. ISBN 978-0-19-165513-5.
  26. E. Mikhail (15 December 1993). Goldsmith: Interviews and Recollections. Palgrave Macmillan UK. p. 214. ISBN 978-1-349-23093-8.
  27. Charles Duke Yonge (1888). Life of sir Walter Scott. Walter Scott & Co.
  28. Stuart Wallace (25 May 2006). John Stuart Blackie: Scottish Scholar and Patriot: Scottish Scholar and Patriot. Edinburgh University Press. p. 328. ISBN 978-0-7486-2819-3.
  29. "Frank T. Marzials (Marzials, Frank T. (Frank Thomas), Sir, 1840-1912), The Online Books Page". Retrieved 19 January 2017.
  30. R. W. Emerson. Poems and Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Рипол Классик. p. iv. ISBN 978-5-87574-979-7.
  31. Lee, Sidney, ed. (1897). "Sime, James" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 52. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  32. Adolphus William Ward (1 January 1997). A History of English Dramatic Literature. Atlantic Publishers & Dist. p. 467 note 1. ISBN 978-81-7156-687-7.
  33. Lee, Sidney, ed. (1899). "Venables, Edmund" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 58. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  34. Rosamond E M Harding (12 October 2012). Anatomy of Inspiration. Routledge. p. 134. ISBN 978-1-136-26348-4.
  35. Heinrich Heine (1 January 2009). Heine's Poems. Cosimo, Inc. p. lxxiv. ISBN 978-1-60520-507-6.
  36. Lee, Sidney, ed. (1894). "Mill, John Stuart" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 37. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  37. Lionel Robbins Baron Robbins (1973). The Evolution of Modern Economic theory. Transaction Publishers. p. 97. ISBN 978-0-202-36964-8.
  38. Rosamond E M Harding (12 October 2012). Anatomy of Inspiration. Routledge. p. 143. ISBN 978-1-136-26355-2.
  39. Eugene L. Rasor (2004). English/British Naval History to 1815: A Guide to the Literature. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 528. ISBN 978-0-313-30547-4.
  40. s:Honore de Balzac, His Life and Writings/Preface
  41. The Academy and Literature. Proprietor. 1905. p. 119.
  42. Toshimasa Yasukata (31 January 2002). Lessing's Philosophy of Religion and the German Enlightenment. Oxford University Press. p. 194. ISBN 978-0-19-803310-3.
  43. The Early Life of George Eliot. Manchester University Press. 1976. p. xvii. GGKEY:N6CWQ431ZPS.
  44. Jane Austen (17 November 2013). Delphi Complete Works of Jane Austen (Illustrated). Delphi Classics. p. 2799. ISBN 978-1-908909-27-5.
  45. Mr B C Southam; B.C. Southam (12 November 2012). Jane Austen: The Critical Heritage Volume 2 1870-1940. Routledge. p. 59. ISBN 978-1-134-78158-4.
  46. Philip Waller (2008). Writers, Readers, and Reputations: Literary Life in Britain 1870-1918. Oxford University Press. p. 207. ISBN 978-0-19-954120-1.
  47. Lee, Sidney, ed. (1895). "Noel, Roden Berkeley Wriothesley" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 41. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  48. Hinings, Jessica. "Noel, Roden Berkeley Wriothesley". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/20235. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  49. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Hawthorne, Nathaniel" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 13 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
  50. Richard Falckenberg (1977). History of Modern Philosophy From Nicolas of Cusa to the Present Time. Library of Alexandria. p. 611. ISBN 978-1-4655-8121-1.
  51. George Henry Nettleton (1 January 1975). English Drama of the Restoration and Eighteenth Century, 1642-1780. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 340. GGKEY:Z4RBQS1Z0TK.
  52. Henry David Thoreau (1960). H. D. Thoreau, a Writer's Journal. Courier Corporation. p. xxxi. ISBN 978-0-486-20678-3.
  53. Lee, Sidney, ed. (1912). "Merivale, Herman Charles" . Dictionary of National Biography (2nd supplement). Vol. 2. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  54. Lee, Sidney, ed. (1912). "Watts, Henry Edward" . Dictionary of National Biography (2nd supplement). Vol. 3. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  55. John Rylands Library page
  56. Lee, Sidney, ed. (1912). "Monkhouse, William Cosmo" . Dictionary of National Biography (2nd supplement). Vol. 2. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  57. Leigh Hunt (1913). Leigh Hunt. Ardent Media. p. 5. GGKEY:28QZXU0B086.
  58. Lee, Sidney, ed. (1901). "Linton, William James" . Dictionary of National Biography (1st supplement). Vol. 3. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  59. Life of Ernest Renan (1895 edition), Open Library. OL 13519931M.
  60. English Prose of the Nineteenth Century. Ardent Media. 1929. p. 499. GGKEY:HR1Y0574SCA.
  61. Bithell, Jethro (1913). "Life and Writings of Maurice Maeterlinck". Internet Archive. London: Walter Scott & Co. Retrieved 20 January 2017.
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