GOSSE, gŏs, Edmund William, English literary critic and poet: b. London, 21 Sept. 1849. From 1875-1904 he was translator to the Board of Trade, and since 1904 has been librarian to the House of Lords. In 1884-85 he lectured in the United States. He has made a special study of Scandinavian literature, and published ‘Studies in the Literature of Northern Europe’ (1879). Other works of his are ‘Life of Gray’ (1882); ‘Seventeenth Century Studies’ (1883); ‘From Shakespeare to Pope’ (1885); ‘Life of Congreve’ (1888); ‘History of Eighteenth Century Literature’ (1890); ‘Life of Philip Henry Gosse, Naturalist’ (1890); ‘Gossip in a Library’ (1891); ‘Questions at Issue’ (1893); ‘The Jacobean Poets’ (1894); ‘History of Modern English Literature’ (1897); ‘Coventry Patmore’ (1904); ‘Father and Son’ (1907), a delightful piece of autobiography which was crowned by the French Academy in 1913; ‘Portraits and Studies’ (1912); ‘Collected Essays’ (5 vols., 1913). He published his ‘Collected Poems’ in 1896.