Edmund Gosse

Sir Edmund William Goss (September 21, 1849 - May 16, 1928) was an English poet, writer, and critic. He was strictly raised in a small Protestant sect, the Plymouth Brothers, but abruptly detached from this faith. His childhood story in Father and Son was described as the first psychological biography. His friendship with sculptor Hamo Thornicroft inspired a successful career as a historian of late Victorian sculpture. His translations of Henrik Ibsen helped to promote this playwright in England, and he supported the careers of W. B. Yates and James Joyce. He also lectured in English literature at Cambridge. Goss was the son of Philip Henry Goss and Emily Bowes. His father was a naturalist, and his mother an illustrator, who published a number of poetry books. Both were deeply devoted to the small Protestant sect, the Plymouth brothers. His childhood was initially happy when they spent the summer in Devon, where his father developed ideas that led to his fascination with the marine aquarium. After his mother died of breast cancer when he was eight years old and they moved to Devon, his life with his father became increasingly stressful because of his father's expectations that he should follow his religious tradition. Goss was sent to a boarding school, where he began to develop his own interests in literature. His father remarried in 1860 to the deeply religious Quaker maiden, Eliza Brighten (1813-1900), whose brother Thomas tried to convince Edmund to become a banker. He later spoke about his childhood in the book Father and Son, which was described as the first psychological biography. At the age of 18, working at the British Museum in London, he put an end to his father's influence at a dramatic age. Eliza Goss’s brother, George, was the husband of Eliza Elder Breitven (1830-1906), a naturalist and author whose first book was published in 1890. After the death of Elisa Elder Brightvin, Edmund Goss organized the publication of his two posthumous works, The Last Hours, with Nature (1908) and Eliza Brighten, Life and Thoughts of a Naturalist (1909), edited by WH Chesson, and the latest book with a preface and epilogue by Gosse.