influential English critic and publisher's reader who discovered, advised, and tutored many of the great British writers of the early 20th century.

The son of the writer and librarian Richard Garnett, he was more influenced by his family's literary interests than by his slight formal education. Through extensive reading Garnett developed a nearly unerring ability to recognize genuine and original literary talent. Among the authors he discovered or befriended were Joseph Conrad, D.H. Lawrence, John Galsworthy, Ford Madox Ford, W.H. Hudson, and Stephen Crane. Garnett's own fiction, which he produced in quantity, was unsuccessful. He was the husband of the translator Constance Garnett and father of the novelist David Garnett.