Richard Holmes
British biographer whose Shelley: The Pursuit set a new standard for Romantic biography by arguing that the biographer must pursue their subject on foot. Footsteps is a meditation on the art and ethics of biographical pursuit. His two-volume life of Coleridge won the Whitbread Prize.
Works
- Shelley: The PursuitDefinitive biography of Romantic poet and writer Percy Bysshe Shelley
- Coleridge: Early VisionsFirst volume biography of poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge's early years
- Coleridge: Darker ReflectionsSecond volume biography of Coleridge's mature years and decline
- FootstepsEssays on following literary and historical figures through their landscapes
- The Age of WonderBritish scientific renaissance from 1750–1830, tracking the lives and discoveries of pioneering natural philosophers