John Ruskin had a life and career that made the romantic visionary singly the most important cultural figure of his day. His canon attests to the intelligence that championed natural beauty, reveled in art, and erred only on the side of humanity. Sir Edward Tyas Cook (1857-1919) also wrote the Life of John Ruskin, the classic biography cited and recommended by the Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature. "My desire has been to discuss not how, but what, Ruskin has written. ... His writings open a vista into a great forest, but there has been some danger of not seeing the forest for the trees."