1899. Birrell, English author and politician, he first came to the public's attention as a literary critic of unusually clever style and an original vein of wit. Contents: Dean Swift; Lord Bolingbroke; Sterne; Dr. Johnson; Richard Cumberland; Alexander Knox and Thomas De Quincey; Hannah More; Marie Bashkirtseff; Sir John Vanbrugh; John Gay; Roger North's Autobiography; Books Old and New; Book-binding; Poets Laureate; Parliamentary Candidates; The Bona-Fide Traveller; Hours in a Library; Americanisms and Briticisms; and Authors and Critics. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.