He had literary interests and arranged for posthumous publication of his friend Samuel Butler's The Way of All Flesh.
[2] His first book, Masters of Italian Music (1895), was a study of Verdi, Boito and later composers including Puccini.
[3] In the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2014), Alec Hyatt-King commented, "Streatfeild’s book on Handel, though old-fashioned in some respects, is a balanced and penetrating study which is still valuable.
"[2] Streatfeild's 1897 book Opera was reissued several times during his lifetime and afterwards, with revisions by J A Fuller Maitland and Edward J Dent.
[2] Under Streatfeild's supervision Butler's novel The Way of All Flesh was published in altered form in 1903, the year after the death of its author.