Julian Symons cheerfully accepted being recognized primarily as a writer of crime fiction, indeed as one of a small group of writers who definitively established the claim of crime fiction to a place of respect within our literary culture. Yet his accomplishments in crime fiction represent only a part of the achievement of one of the most versatile men of letters of his generation. A recognized poet, even if in his own view a minor one, editor of an influential journal of poetry in the 1930s, respected critic and historian of literature, an informed and perceptive observer of modern society, and the author of seven biographies, Symons, who had no long-term academic affiliation, impressively lived the vocation of freelance writer.

The youngest of seven children, two of whom died in infancy, Julian Symons was born in London on 30 May 1912, the son of Morris Albert Symons, a Jewish immigrant...