Stephen Lucius Gwynn (1864-1950) was an Irish journalist, biographer, author, poet and Protestant nationalist politician and MP. in the House of Commons. He served as officer with an Irish regiment during World War I. After graduating he spent ten years from 1886 tutoring as a schoolmaster, for a time in France which created a lifelong interest in French culture, as expressed in Praise of France (1927). By 1896 he had developed an interest in writing, becoming a writer and journalist in London focusing on English themes, until he came into contact with the emerging Irish literary revival. This was the beginning of a long and prolific career as a writer covering a wide range of literary genres, making the eighteenth century his particular specialism. He wrote numerous books on travel and topography of his own homeland. Gwynn returned to Ireland in 1904 when he entered politics. From the 1920s Gwynn devoted himself to writing, covering political events as Irish correspondent to the Observer. His other works include: John Redmond's Last Years (1919) and Irish Books and Irish People (1919). --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.