For nearly fifty years E. V. Lucas was one of the most accomplished and respected literary men in London. As an author of books, a journalist, an editor, a bookman, and a publisher's reader, he knew nearly all of the leading English writers of his time, including H. G. Wells, John Galsworthy, J. M. Barrie, and Bernard Shaw; and Joseph Conrad was his next-door neighbor for several years. Blessed with a facile pen and strong professional discipline, Lucas wrote more than one hundred books, including collections of essays, children's books, novels, biographies, travel books, art books, anthologies, editions of letters, and satires in both prose and poetry. Although Lucas received his greatest praise and fame for his essays--he is considered one of the six best practitioners of that form in England in the first half of the twentieth century--he also produced thirteen novels that deserve to be remembered...