Richard Garnett

Born in Lichfield in 1835, he joined the British Museum as a teenager and remained closely connected to it for almost fifty years, eventually becoming Keeper of Printed Books. Alongside that long career in librarianship, he wrote widely across genres, including poetry, criticism, biography, essays, and stories.

He moved in a remarkable literary family and circle, and his work often reflected both broad reading and a lively sense of style. Readers still encounter him through collections of essays and tales such as The Twilight of the Gods, as well as through his biographical and historical writing on major literary figures.

What makes him interesting now is the combination of scholarship and personality: he was learned without being dry, and serious about books without losing a playful, humane touch. He died in 1906, leaving behind a body of work that connects Victorian literary culture with the everyday world of readers, writers, and libraries.