John Bailey

John Cann Bailey (10 January 1864 – 29 June 1931) was an English literary critic, lecturer, and chairman of the National Trust.

After education at Haileybury College and New College, Oxford, Bailey qualified as a barrister, but did not practise law. He attempted unsuccessfully to enter politics, and later became a leading figure in the National Trust.

As a literary critic he wrote twelve books and many reviews in literary journals. He was assistant editor of The Quarterly Review, and chairman (later president) of the English Association.

Life and career Bailey was born in Wymondham, Norfolk, the third son of Elijah Crosier Bailey, a solicitor, and his wife, Jane Sarah née Cann. He made many friends in the literary and artistic circles of Oxford, and developed his love of fine arts and Greek and Latin classics. He made an unsuccessful attempt to enter politics as a Conservative candidate, losing at parliamentary elections in 1895 and 1900. A leading member of the English Association, he was its chairman from 1912 to 1915 and president from 1925 to 1926. He was a frequent lecturer on literature; among his appointments were those of Warton Lecturer to the British Academy, 1919; Clark Lecturer, Trinity College, Cambridge, 1921; Taylorian Lecturer in the University of Oxford, 1926; and Fry Lecturer to the University of Bristol, 1927.

During the First World War Bailey worked for British intelligence, where he was responsible for propaganda in France, Spain, and Italy. In 1918, transferred to the Foreign Office he was involved in the planning for the Paris peace conference. After the war he was a candidate for the chair of poetry at Oxford, but the election was won by H. W. Garrod.

Bailey died at his house in South Kensington, London, aged 67. He was buried at Wramplingham, Norfolk, near his birthplace.

Publications Articles

Books Studies in Some Famous Letters, 1899 An Anthology of English Elegies, 1899 The Poems of William Cowper, 1905 The Claims of French Poetry, 1907 Poets and Poetry, 1911 Dr Johnson and his Circle, 1913 Milton, 1915 A Day Book of Landor, 1919 Some Political Ideas and Persons, 1921 The Continuity of Letters, 1923 Walt Whitman, 1926 The Diary of Lady Frederick Cavendish (ed), 1927 Shakespeare, 1929