John Bailey (critic)

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

[2] He made many friends in the literary and artistic circles of Oxford, and developed his love of fine arts and Greek and Latin classics.

[2] He was called to the bar by the Inner Temple in 1892, but never practised law;[2] he had a private income adequate to sustain him.

[1] He made an unsuccessful attempt to enter politics as a Conservative candidate, losing at parliamentary elections in 1895 and 1900.

He himself may have rated highest his Milton (1915), a little book, but many of his contemporaries felt that Dr Johnson and his Circle (1913) gave his particular powers their fullest scope.

[4] During the First World War Bailey worked for British intelligence, where he was responsible for propaganda in France, Spain, and Italy.