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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 information about English authors, including under this
designation American and Colonial writers, as the prescribed limits will admit of. At the same time an attempt
has been made, where materials exist for it, to enhance the interest by introducing such details as tend to
illustrate the characters and circumstances of the respective writers and the manner in which they passed
through the world; and in the case of the more important, to give some indication of the relative place which
they hold and the leading features of their work.
Including the Appendix of Living Writers, the work contains upwards of 1600 names; but large as this number
is, the number of those who have contributed something of interest and value to the vast store of English
Literature is larger still, and any attempt to make a book of this kind absolutely exhaustive would be futile.
The word "literature" is here used in a very wide sense, and this gives rise to considerable difficulty in
drawing the line of exclusion. There are very many writers whose claim to admission may reasonably be
considered as good as that of some who have been included; but even had it been possible to discover all
these, their inclusion would have swelled the work beyond its limits. A line had to be drawn somewhere, and
the writer has used his best judgment in making that line as consistent as possible. It may probably, however,
be safely claimed that every department of the subject of any importance is well represented.
Wherever practicable (and this includes all but a very few articles), various authorities have been collated, and
pains have been taken to secure accuracy; but where so large a collection of facts and dates is involved, it
would be too sanguine to expect that success has invariably been attained.
J.W.C.
January , 1910.
A SHORT BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE 1

The following list gives some of the best known works of Biography:—
Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature and English and American 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, Dictionary of Anonymous and
Pseudonymous Literature, 1882-88; Dictionary of 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, Universal Dictionary of Biography and Mythology, 1887-89; Men and
Women of the Time, 15th edit., ed. by Victor G. Plarr, 1889.
LIST OF CONTRACTIONS USED THROUGHOUT THE WORK
b. born Edin. Edinburgh
c. circa fl. flourished
Camb. Cambridge Glas. Glasgow
Coll. College m. married
coll. collected Oxf. Oxford
cr. created pres. president
d. died pub. published
dau. daughter Prof. Professor
ed. educated sec. secretary
{ edition s. son
ed. { editor Univ. University