author
David Masson
1822–1907
A leading Victorian man of letters, he helped shape literary studies in Britain while writing one of the great early lives of John Milton. He was also a journalist, editor, and an outspoken supporter of women's suffrage.
4 Audiobooks
The Life of John Milton, Volume 5 (of 7), 1654-1660 Narrated in Connexion with the Political, Ecclesiastical, and Literary History of His Time
by David Masson
The Life of John Milton Volume 3 1643-1649 Narrated in Connexion with the Political, Ecclesiastical, and Literary History of His Time
by David Masson
Edinburgh sketches & memories
by David Masson
About the author
Born in Aberdeen in 1822, David Masson became one of Scotland's best-known literary scholars and critics. After studying at Marischal College and later at the University of Edinburgh, he moved from plans for the ministry into a life of writing, reviewing, and editing. He worked in London journalism and edited Macmillan's Magazine, building a reputation as a lively public intellectual.
Masson is especially remembered for his long, ambitious work on Milton, The Life of John Milton, as well as books on British novelists and other literary figures. In 1865 he was appointed Regius Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature at the University of Edinburgh, a post he held for many years, helping establish English literature as a serious university subject.
Beyond the classroom and the page, he took strong public positions on the issues of his time, including support for women's higher education and women's suffrage. He died in Edinburgh in 1907, leaving behind a large body of criticism, biography, and literary history that still marks him as an important Victorian scholar.