C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Isaac Disraeli (1766–1848)
D’Israeli, Isaac. A notable English literary essayist, compiler, and historian, father of Benjamin; born at Enfield, in Middlesex, May 1766; died on Jan. 9, 1848. He was of Spanish-Jew stock, but left the Jewish communion. Rejecting a career of trade, he frequented the British Museum and compiled an interesting collection of literary miscellanea or “ana,” the ‘Curiosities of Literature,’ published anonymously in 1791. The author expected little sale, and presented the copyright to the publisher, but bought it back a few years later on its remarkable success; it is still continually republished. A series of like collections followed, with the same success: ‘Calamities of Authors’; ‘Quarrels of Authors’; ‘Miscellanies or Literary Recollections.’ He wrote some unsuccessful romances; among them is ‘Mejnoun and Leila,’ probably the earliest Oriental romance in the language. His ‘Commentaries on the Life and Reign of Charles I.’ marked a distinct advance in the methods of historical research. (See Critical and Biographical Introduction).