In his lifetime Edward Tyas Cook was known for his work in journalism and as the editor of three major London daily newspapers, the Pall Mall Gazette, the Westminster Gazette, and the Daily News. He also published several biographical studies of major public figures of his time. The best known of these is his two-volume The Life of John Ruskin, published in 1911 and considered to be one of the standard early biographies of the nineteenth-century writer and thinker. Cook's journalistic temperament is indicated by the many works he published on current events, but his writings on other biographers' works, on painting, and on literature both classical and contemporary prove that he was equally at ease with literary and artistic topics. He wrote knowledgeably and with evident enjoyment about many artists and writers, but throughout his life his interests centered firmly on Ruskin, whose complete works were edited by...