author
John Forster
1812–1876
Best known as Charles Dickens’s close friend, adviser, and first major biographer, he was a central figure in Victorian literary London. His own writing ranged from criticism and history to biography, with a reputation for sharp judgment and deep knowledge of the writers around him.
1 Audiobook
The Life of Charles Dickens, Vol. I-III, Complete
by John Forster
About the author
Born in Newcastle upon Tyne on April 2, 1812, John Forster became an English writer, critic, journalist, and biographer. Early in his career he moved into London literary circles, where he built a reputation as an energetic editor and a trusted reader of manuscripts.
He is most closely linked with Charles Dickens. Forster was one of Dickens’s closest friends and advisers, and after Dickens’s death he published The Life of Charles Dickens in 1872, the first full biography of the novelist and still an important source because of Forster’s personal knowledge of Dickens’s life and work.
Forster also wrote on English history and public life, including books on the statesmen of the Commonwealth and a biography of Sir John Eliot. He died in London on February 2, 1876, remembered both for his own literary work and for the vivid record he preserved of Victorian authors and culture.