John Forster was among the most influential and distinguished critics and editors of the early and mid Victorian period. From 1834 to 1856 he was associated with the Examiner, first as subeditor and chief literary and drama critic, and then as editor from 1847 until he resigned. He also served as literary adviser and at times agent of many Victorian men and women of letters. These included Alfred Tennyson and Robert Browning, whose merit as poets he was among the first to recognize; Edward Bulwer-Lytton; Charles Dickens; Thomas Carlyle; Leigh Hunt; Walter Savage Landor; Elizabeth Gaskell; and Charles Lamb. Through his journalism, his dealings with publishers, and his biography writing Forster was a tireless promoter of the professional standing of the man of letters. Forster wrote biographies of Dickens, Landor, and Oliver Goldsmith and had completed the first of three volumes of a biography of Jonathan Swift at the time of...