George Lillie Craik, an English author, born in Fifeshire in 1799, died June 25, 1866. He studied theology at the university of St. Andrews, but did not take license as a preacher. He went to London about 1824, and wrote for the society for the diffusion of useful knowledge "The Pursuit of Knowledge under Difficulties " (2 vols., 1831). He was a principal contributor to the "Penny Cyclopaedia" in history and biography, and in 1839 became the editor of the "Pictorial History of England," and wrote the chapters afterward expanded into separate works as "Sketches of the History of Literature and Learning in England" (6 vols., 1844), and the "History of British Commerce" (3 vols.). In the same series (Knight's "Weekly Volume ") appeared " Spenser and his Poetry " (1845), and " Bacon and his Philosophy " (1846-'7). He wrote in 1847 another volume of "The Pursuit of Knowledge under Difficulties," containing female examples only. He was appointed in 1849 professor of history and literature in the Queen's college, Belfast, and afterward published "Romance of the Peerage" (4 vols., 1848-'50), "Outlines of the History of the English Language" (1851), "The English of Shakespeare," etc.

His last work was "A Compendious History of English Literature and the English Language" (1861).