Forster, John

Related Category: English Literature, 19th cent.: Biographies

1812–76, English biographer and critic. He was influential as literary and dramatic critic of the London Examiner. His Lives of the Statesmen of the Commonwealth (5 vol., 1836–39) established his reputation as a biographer. He is best known for his excellent Life of Charles Dickens (3 vol., 1872–74). In addition he wrote lives of Goldsmith (1848), Landor (1869), and Swift (Vol. I only, 1875).