Richard Garnett was born in 1835 in Lichfield, England, from whose cathedral his father was the titular vicar. He was a librarian at the British Museum from the age of fifteen to sixty, and wrote in his spare time several biographies (Milton, Blake...), poetry and essays, as well as his masterpiece, The Twilight of the Gods, of which prominent authors such as Swinburne, H.G. Wells or Wilde were admirers.