John Morley had two distinguished careers--first, as a journalist, editor, biographer, and critic, and second, as a politician. In his first role he is now best known as the writer of a monumental life of William Ewart Gladstone (1903), but he was also the author of other biographies and biographical essays. As a politician he was elected to Parliament as a Liberal and held ministerial office as chief secretary for Ireland and later as secretary of state for India. He was the recipient of many honors, including a peerage and the Order of Merit, initiated in 1902 by Edward VII as the most exclusive of all civilian honors.

Morley was born on 24 December 1838 to Jonathan and Priscilla Donkin Morley in Blackburn, a Lancashire town where the early stages of industrialization had produced poverty and unrest. Morley's father was a surgeon and had a love of books. Morley received a sound...