John Morley, Viscount Morley

English statesman
verifiedCite
While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.
Select Citation Style
Feedback
Corrections? Updates? Omissions? Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login).
Thank you for your feedback

Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

External Websites
Britannica Websites
Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.
Quick Facts
Born:
Dec. 24, 1838, Blackburn, Eng. (born on this day)
Died:
Sept. 23, 1923, Wimbledon (aged 84)

John Morley, Viscount Morley (born Dec. 24, 1838, Blackburn, Eng.—died Sept. 23, 1923, Wimbledon) was an English Liberal statesman who was a friend and official biographer of W.E. Gladstone and who gained fame as a man of letters, particularly as a biographer. As a long-time member of Parliament (1883–95; 1896–1908), he was chief secretary for Ireland (1886; 1892–95) and secretary of state for India (1905–10), and was raised to the peerage in 1908. Among his published works are Edmund Burke (1867), Voltaire (1872), Rousseau (1873), Diderot and the Encyclopaedists (1878), The Life of Richard Cobden (1881), Ralph Waldo Emerson (1884), Studies in Literature (1891), Oliver Cromwell (1900), Life of Gladstone (1903), Critical Miscellanies (1908), and Recollections (1917).

This article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.