Wright (1888-1939) was an American art critic who was an important figure in avant-garde cultural circles in pre-World War I New York. First published in 1915, this book was an attempt to popularize the German philosopher Nietzsche with sceptical American audiences, describing and commenting on all his works and providing quotations from each work. In the 1920s, under the pseudonym S S Van Dine, Wright created the immensely popular fictional detective Philo Vance, a sleuth and aesthete, who appeared in a number of books, and also in movies and on radio.