There are men in the world of letters who will be remembered for their scholarship, their collecting, their associations, their teachings, or their general impact on those around them. There are others for whom such attributes will be overshadowed by something else. Harry Buxton Forman is one of the latter.

Forman was born on 11 July 1842 to George Ellery Forman, a surgeon in the Royal Navy, and Maria Courthope Forman. Later in life he came to dislike his given first name, Henry, and referred to himself as Harry. His father retired from the navy at half pay soon after Forman's birth and went into private practice in Teignmouth, South Devon. Forman and his older brothers-George, born in 1833, and Alfred, born in 1840-and their sister, Mary, born in 1838, were followed by three other children: Jessie Hester in 1844, Sidney Wells in 1845, and William Courthope Gardiner in 1848.

Forman attended Thorn Park School...