May 16, 1928

Edmund Gosse (September 21, 1849  to May  16, 1928) was an English writer. His book Father and Son 1907, has been labeled the first biography to delve into psychological change, rather than mainly external events. In this excerpt Gosse describes the difficulties the family faced after his mother died when he was only eight years old: his father had to work, after all:

the wholesome prick of need urged him on. It was a question of paying for food and clothes, of keeping a roof above our heads. The captain of a vessel in a storm must navigate his ship, although his wife lies dead in the cabin. That was my Father's position in the spring of 1857; he had to stimulate, instruct, amuse large audiences of strangers, and seem gay, although affliction and loneliness had settled in his heart. He had to do this, or starve. But the difficulty still remained. During these months what was to become of me? My Father could not take me with him from hotel to hotel and from lecture-hall to lecture-hall. Nor could he leave me, as people leave the domestic cat, in an empty house for the neighbours to feed at intervals. The dilemma threatened to be insurmountable, when suddenly there descended upon us a kind, but little-known, paternal cousin from the west of England,....

Gosse was a prolific writer and is remembererd as much for his criticism and chronicling of modern influences upon the literary scene, as his original art.

Some few of his books: 

Life of Thomas Gray, (1884)
Life of William Congreve (1888)
A History of Eighteenth Century Literature (1889)
The Jacobean Poets (1894)
Life and Letters of Dr John Donne, Dean of St Paul's (1899)
Gossip in a Library (1892)

During his life Gosse held an exalted position in the literary world because of his book reviews. John Singer Sargent painted his portrait. Now he is a footnote to English literature. 

It is no easier now to evaluate the lasting value of art.