Best known for his landmark biographies of George Bernard Shaw, Archibald Henderson helped consolidate the reputations of several modern playwrights. In the process, he influenced the practice of biography with his "scientific" notion of a life record. In addition to his biographical writing, he wrote prolifically and influentially on southern American history; he also popularized mathematical and scientific concepts such as the theory of relativity. To his contemporaries in the South he was a genius jack-of-all-scholarly-trades; to Shaw he was the "Grand Panjandrum" to whom the playwright entrusted the task of consolidating his variety of professional images into a portrait of "G.B.S."

Archibald Henderson was born on 17 June 1877 in Salisbury, North Carolina, to John Steele and Elizabeth Brownrigg Cain Henderson. His father's family was a prominent one in the state. His grandmother took charge of his early education, instilling in him his love for reading. In...