A SHORT BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE
BY JOHN. W. COUSIN
LONDON: PUBLISHED
by J.M. DENT & SONS. LTD
AND IN NEW YORK
BY E.P. DUTTON & CO
INTRODUCTION
The primary aim of this book is to give as much informationabout English authors, including under this designation Americanand Colonial writers, as the prescribed limits will admit of.At the same time an attempt has been made, where materialsexist for it, to enhance the interest by introducing such detailsas tend to illustrate the characters and circumstances of the respectivewriters and the manner in which they passed throughthe world; and in the case of the more important, to give someindication of the relative place which they hold and the leadingfeatures of their work.
Including the Appendix of Living Writers, the work containsupwards of 1600 names; but large as this number is, the numberof those who have contributed something of interest and valueto the vast store of English Literature is larger still, and anyattempt to make a book of this kind absolutely exhaustivewould be futile.
The word "literature" is here used in a very wide sense,and this gives rise to considerable difficulty in drawing the lineof exclusion. There are very many writers whose claim toadmission may reasonably be considered as good as that ofsome who have been included; but even had it been possibleto discover all these, their inclusion would have swelled thework beyond its limits. A line had to be drawn somewhere,and the writer has used his best judgment in making that lineas consistent as possible. It may probably, however, be safelyclaimed that every department of the subject of any importanceis well represented.
Wherever practicable (and this includes all but a very fewarticles), various authorities have been collated, and pains havebeen taken to secure accuracy; but where so large a collectionof facts and dates is involved, it would be too sanguine toexpect that success has invariably been attained.
J.W.C.
The following list gives some of the best known works of Biography:—
Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature and English andAmerican Authors, 1859-71, Supplement, by J.F. Kirke, 1891; W. Hazlitt,Collections and Notes of Early English Literature, 1876-93; R. Chambers,Cyclopædia of English Literature, 1876, 1901; Halkett and Laign, Dictionaryof Anonymous and Pseudonymous Literature, 1882-88; Dictionaryof National Biography, ed. by Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee, 1885, etc.,re-issue, 1908, etc.; Appleton's Cyclopædia of American Biography, ed.by J. Grant Wilson and John Fiske, 1887, etc.; J. Thomas, UniversalDictionary of Biography and Mythology, 1887-89; Men and Women ofthe Time, 15th edit., ed. by Victor G. Plarr, 1889.
LIST OF CONTRACTIONS USED THROUGHOUT THE WORK
| b. | born | Edin. | Edinburgh |
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