Edmund W Gosse: 2 books

This 1884 biography of Thomas Gray was the first full-length treatment of its subject.  Gosse was an authority on Gray, the editor of his collected works, and his knowledge and affinity for the poet makes this a first-class literary biography.

Based on letters and some information previously unavailable, the author gives “a full portrait” Sir Walter Raleigh (1554-1618): poet, soldier, courtier, spy, explorer, and popularizer of tobacco use. It is also one of the first biographies to emphasize Raleigh’s private life—and not the historical...