Richard Holmes

Richard Gordon Heath Holmes, born November 5, 1945, in London, is a British author and academic renowned for his biographical studies of Romantic-era figures. Notable works include Shelley: The Pursuit (Somerset Maugham Award, 1974), the two-volume Coleridge biography (Whitbread Book of the Year, 1989; Duff Cooper Prize, 1998), Dr. Johnson and Mr. Savage (James Tait Black Prize, 1993), and The Age of Wonder (2008). Career highlights encompass his tenure as Professor of Biographical Studies at the University of East Anglia (2001-2007), receiving the OBE in 1992, editing the Harper Perennial Classic Biographies series, and publishing The Boundless Deep in 2025, shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize.