author
R. Brimley (Reginald Brimley) Johnson
1867–1932
A lively man of letters, he wrote biographies, criticism, and literary studies with a special interest in English writers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. His books range from Jane Austen and the Brontës to ballads, reviews, and debates about fiction.
2 Audiobooks
Moral Poison in Modern Fiction
by R. Brimley (Reginald Brimley) Johnson
The women novelists
by R. Brimley (Reginald Brimley) Johnson
About the author
Born in 1867 and known in print as R. Brimley Johnson, Reginald Brimley Johnson built a varied career as an editor, biographer, critic, and publisher. Archival records describe him as a specialist in nineteenth-century English literature and literary figures, and his surviving work shows a reader deeply engaged with how writers lived, wrote, and were received.
His books and editorial work covered an impressively broad stretch of literary history. He wrote studies such as The Women Novelists, Jane Austen, and William Cowper, edited collections including Famous Reviews and Popular British Ballads, and also published Moral Poison in Modern Fiction, a title that captures his willingness to join literary arguments of his day. Taken together, his work suggests an author who wanted literature to feel active and debated rather than distant and museum-like.
Johnson died in 1932. Though he is not a household name now, he remains a rewarding figure for readers who enjoy literary biography, criticism, and the rich afterlife of classic English writing.