Mary C. Moorman's biography of William Wordsworth (1957, 1965) has been a standard life of the Romantic poet since the appearance of the second volume. Although she wrote several other books, edited Dorothy Wordsworth's journal (1971), and made a significant contribution to the editing of William and Dorothy Wordsworth's letters (1967-1982), the biography, which reflects thirty years of research, reflection, and writing, is her greatest achievement and has a scholarly authority matched by few literary biographies in English.

Mary Caroline Trevelyan was born in London on 19 February 1905, the eldest of three children of George Macaulay Trevelyan and Janet Ward Trevelyan; her brothers' names were Theo and Humphry. The family had many literary connections. George Trevelyan was an eminent historian, and both parents were published authors. Their only daughter was named Mary after her maternal grandmother, the novelist Mrs. Humphry Ward, who had been born Mary Augusta Arnold and whose father was...