Cecil, (Edward Christian) David (1902–1986)

English critic and biographer. His works include The Stricken Deer (1929, a life of the poet William Cowper); biographies of the writers Walter Scott (1933), Jane Austen (1935), and Thomas Hardy (1943); and a two-part study of the politician William Melbourne (1939 and 1954). His critical works include Early Victorian Novelists (1934) and The Fine Art of Reading and Other Literary Studies (1957).

He was a son of the 4th Marquess of Salisbury. Educated at Oxford, he was a fellow of New College 1939–69.