Biographies of writers have maintained their popularity for many years, both here and overseas, a fact sometimes attributed to the chance they give 'busy people' to become acquainted with an author's work without having to read it. The imputation is probably unjust: many people are driven to read or reread an author's works as a direct consequence of reading a good biography. It is true, though, that biographies of writers seem to possess a range of what might be called secondary functions: they can provide not only conveniently digested samplings of the writers' work, but also serviceable frameworks for cultural historiography and for literary history and criticism.