num_pages: 468
description: In 1850 John Payne Collier was among the foremost scholars of his generation: a man of prodigious learning, the pre-eminent editor of Shakespeare, the author of over 40 books of critical commentary and literary history. Ten years later, Collier was the object of universal contempt and execration. At the summit of his career, he was accused of outrageous crimes of forgery and theft, and almost overnight he became one of the most despised men in England, condemned to live another 30yrs. in unremiting disgrace and increasing self-recrimination. When he died in 1883 at the age of 94, his name was among the most infamous in literary history. It has remained so. This book examines Collier's life and the calamity which overtook it. It describes his career as journalist, as editor, and as scholar, and his friendships and quarrels over a period of 70yrs. In particular it investigates the British Museum 'Inquisition' which precipitated the accusations agains him. It is a story of scholarly deception, of intellectual overreaching, of secrets kept, of mysteries unexplored. It concludes - contrary to the judgement of the previous century - that Collier was probably innocent of the charges against him and that his accusers knew he was innocent. The defamation of John Payne Collier may have been the most successful conspiracy in literary history.
language: English
title: Fortune and Men's Eyes: The Career of John Payne Collier
titlecomplete: Fortune and Men's Eyes: The Career of John Payne Collier
publisher: Oxford University Press