George Saintsbury's literary output was massive. He wrote nearly fifty books and over eight hundred essays, introductions, and reviews. The actual total remains unknown. Among all these there are only five works that can be classified as biographies as such. They are important as studies of their subjects and for the light they throw on their author; but Saintsbury's greatest importance for biography is probably his general influence on other biographers. For in his time Saintsbury's stature was as colossal as his output. He simply could not be ignored. The descriptions by his contemporaries are indicative: to Irving Babbitt he was "the official English critic"; Helen Waddell commented that "There'll never be another Saintsbury"; to Christopher Morley he was simply "King of Critics."

George Edward Bateman Saintsbury was born on 23 October 1845 in Southampton, where his father was superintendent of the docks owned by the London and South Western...