Richard B. (Richard Briscoe) Cook

Richard Briscoe Cook (1838–1916) was an author identified in reference sources as Richard B. Cook, and he is chiefly remembered for The Grand Old Man, a biography of British statesman William Ewart Gladstone.

Listings from The Online Books Page show a wider range to his work than that single title suggests. Alongside The Grand Old Man (1898), works attributed to him include The Story of the Baptists in All Ages and Countries, The Early and Later Delaware Baptists, and Life, Work and Sermons of Dwight L. Moody, pointing to a strong interest in religious history, Protestant figures, and accessible biographical writing.

Only a small amount of biographical detail was easy to confirm from reliable web sources, so the outline of his life remains fairly spare here. Even so, the surviving record makes him look like a steady, prolific writer whose books aimed to inform ordinary readers about major public and religious personalities of his day.