Who said: "The low brow and the high brow"

"The lowbrow often believes that a bad book is good,
while the highbrow often believes that a good book is bad."
-- Robert Lynd


Robert Lynd (1879-1949) was born in Belfast, Ireland. He worked briefly for the Northern Whig newspaper before moving to Manchester, and then to London as a freelance journalist. He became a staff writer for the Daily News (later the News Chronicle) and from 1912 to 1947 was its literary editor. He also wrote for the Nation, and under the pseudonym Y.Y., he contributed weekly essays to the New Statesman for more than three decades.

Politically, he was a socialist and a supporter of Sinn Fein (an Irish separatist party formed in 1905; Sinn Fein means 'ourselves') and the Gaelic League (a cultural organization founded in 1893 with the objective of reviving the Irish language and reintroducing it into schools). He also edited some of the works of James Connolly (who was charged with treason, and shot by the British, for his involvement in the Irish rebellion of 1916).

He is best remembered today for his essays written over a period of more than forty years.

More Quotes

This quote & biography originally ran in an issue of BookBrowse's membership magazine. Full Membership Features & Benefits.