Edward Dutton Cook (January 30, 1829 – September 11, 1883) was an English dramatic critic and author. Cook's father was George Simon Cook of Grantham, Lincolnshire, a solicitor, of the firm of Le Blanc & Cook, 18 New Bridge Street, Blackfriars, London, who died on 12 Sept. 1852, leaving a family of nine children. Edward Dutton, the second son, was born at 9 Grenville Street, Brunswick Square, London, on 30 Jan. 1829. At the age of six he went to a school kept by a Miss Boswell at Haverstock Hill, was removed to another school at Bradmore House, Chiswick, and finally, about 1843, entered King's College School. Having completed his education, he was articled to his father, and remained in his office about four years, when he obtained a situation in the Madras Railway Company's office in New Broad Street, city of London, and in his spare time followed his artistic and literary tastes. As soon as he was able to do so he left the railway company and devoted himself entirely to literature as a profession. Having studied painting under Rolt, and learned engraving, he at one time sought employment on Punch as a draughtsman on wood. In 1859 he became a member of the Artists' rifle corps, and also a member of the Ramblers' Club, which met every night from November to May at Dick's Tavern, 8 Fleet Street. About this period, in conjunction with Mr. Leopold Lewis, he wrote a melodrama entitled The Dove and the Serpent, which was produced with much success, under Mr. Nelson Lee's management, at the City of London Theatre. From 1867 to October 1875 he was dramatic critic to the Pall Mall Gazette, and from that date to his death to the World newspaper. He was the writer of numerous articles on art topics in various reviews, newspapers, and periodicals, and the author of many works of fiction. Of the latter, Paul Foster's Daughter, his first work, served to establish his reputation, and the production of The Trials of the Tredgolds in the following year (1862) in Temple Bar was a great literary success. His later novels did not maintain the popularity which his earlier works achieved. This was from no lack of merit, but because he was not sufficiently sensational in his style to suit the spirit and fashion of the period. He was one of the contributors to the Dictionary of National Biography, and furnished the dramatic and theatrical lives in letter A to the first and second volumes. He died suddenly of heart disease on 11 September 1883, and was buried in Highgate cemetery on 15 September.[1] He married, on 20 Aug. 1874, Linda Scates (second daughter of Joseph Scates), a pupil of the Royal Academy of Music and a well-known pianist, by whom he left one daughter, named Sylvia after the heroine of her father's first novel.  "Cook, Edward Dutton". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.