Harley Granville Barker ranks with George Bernard Shaw and John Galsworthy as one of the leading playwrights of the naturalistic social drama in Edwardian England. His creativity as a dramatist reached its peak before World War I, which marked the turning point of his career. By that time he had amassed substantial experience in the theater as actor and producer, helping to pioneer the new repertory movement and using highly individual and experimental production ideas and techniques. After the war his distinction lay mainly in lectures and nondramatic writing, notably the Prefaces to Shakespeare (1927-1947).

Barker was born in Kensington, London, and his childhood prepared him for a career in the theater. His father, Albert James Barker, described himself as an architect; but his mother, Mary Elizabeth Bozzi-Granville Barker, made a living as a reciter and bird mimic. (After his second marriage Barker, drawing upon his mother's maiden...