For over a century, the photographs of Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-79) have fascinated historians, photographers and collectors. Cameron produced hundreds of searching portraits of the most eminent figures of the Victorian age as well as romantic pictures of beautiful young women, and strikingly original - if often controversial - literary illustrations. Today her prints fetch staggering prices at auction. This volume, an illustrated critical biography, brings together Cameron's finest prints from museums and private collections in Britain and America. It reproduces many hitherto unseen works, casting new light on the artist's links with Victorian life, literature and science. Colin Ford's text compares Cameron's works to those of other artists and charts her increasingly confident progress towards her greatest achievements, firmly establishing Julia Margaret Cameron as one of the most important figures in the history of photography.