E. V. Lucas was taught to swim by George Bernard Shaw, heard James Barrie reading Peter Pan while it was still in manuscript, and knew virtually everyone in the London literary and publishing worlds in the first third of the twentieth century. He was a prolific author, with more than a hundred works published, and Max Beerbohm once seriously estimated that in the course of his life Lucas probably wrote more words than he spoke. He wrote novels, biographies, art criticism, cricket history, humor and satire, books for children, books of verse, and travel books. He compiled several popular anthologies and, though his scholarship has since been largely superseded, was a recognized authority on Charles Lamb. Though he failed as a playwright, before and during the 1914-1918 war he wrote lyrics for successful London revues starring the celebrated music-hall comedian Harry Tate. It was as an essayist, however...