'I was born in London on the 20th of May, 1806, and was the eldest son of James Mill, the author of The History of British India.' The father-author thus announced at the beginning of John Stuart Mill's Autobiography dominated his life from early childhood on. Did he in any sense author his son's life as he authored his books? John Stuart Mill wrote his own Life in large part to work out an answer to that question.

LRB 5 April 1984 | PDF Download