Laurence Hutton (1843-1904) was an American essayist and critic, born in New York City and educated privately there. He was an inveterate traveller and for about 20 years spent his summers abroad. From about 1870 he contributed continually to periodicals. From 1886 to 1898 he was the literary editor of Harper's Magazine. He was one of the organizers of the Authors' Club and of the International Copyright League. An ardent collector of literary curiosities, his collections are of remarkable interest. In 1892 he received the degree of A. M. from Yale and in 1897 from Princeton. His writings on dramatic subjects include: Plays and Players (1875), Curiosities of the American Stage (1891), Memoir of Edwin Booth (with Brander Matthews) (1893), Actors and Actresses of Great Britain and the United States: Garrick and His Contemporaries (1900) and A Boy I Knew and Four Dogs (1901). He edited the American Actor Series (1881-82) and published a group of delightful literary guidebooks, including: Literary Landmarks of Edinburgh (1891), Literary Landmarks of Jerusalem (1895), Literary Landmarks of Venice (1896), Literary Landmarks of Florence (1897) and Literary Landmarks of London (1897).