An unrepentant enthusiast for the art of literary biography, Halperin not only believes that the author's life and work are inextricably linked, but that the themes, obsessions and ideas that characterize his or her output are formed during, and can be traced back to, the writer's formative years. In this book he examines the early years of Henry James, Thomas Hardy, Joseph Conrad, Somerset Maugham, George Robert Gissing and Edith Wharton. The author's previous books include "Gissing: A life in Books", "Trollope and Politics", "The Life of John Austen" and "C.P. Snow: An Oral Biography".