The New International Encyclopædia/Gosse, Edmund William

GOSSE, Edmund William (1849—). An English author. He was born in London, September 21, 1849, the son of Philip Gosse, the naturalist. Though he did not have the advantage of a university education, he has received, in recognition of his services to letters, the degree M.A. (1885) from Cambridge, and the degree LL.D. (1899) from Saint Andrews. In 1867 he was appointed assistant librarian in the British Museum; in 1875, translator to the Board of Trade; and in 1884, Clark lecturer in English literature at Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1884 he visited the United States, lecturing at Harvard, Yale, Johns Hopkins, and other colleges. He is distinguished both as poet and as critic, his chief works being Madrigals, Songs, and Sonnets (1870); On Viol and Flute (1873); Northern Studies (essays on Scandinavian literature, 1879); Thomas Gray (1882); Seventeenth Century Studies (1883); Congreve (1888); History of Eighteenth Century Literature (1889); The Secret of Narcisse (1892); In Russet and Silver (1894); The Jacobean Poets (1894); Critical Kit-Kats (1896); Short History of English Literature (1897); Life and Letters of Dr. John Donne (1899); and An Illustrated History of English Literature, in collaboration with Garnett (1902).