W. G. Collingwood became a student of John Ruskin in 1872 when he started his study in University College, Oxford. For many years he dedicated himself to helping Ruskin as his resident assistant. In 1883 he settled near to Ruskin in the Lake District. Collingwood edited a number of Ruskin's texts and published a biography of Ruskin "The Life and Work of John Ruskin" in two volumes in 1893, which in many ways remains the best biography of Ruskin. In 1900, Collingwood published a shortened and thoroughly reworked version of it, "The Life of John Ruskin". This book is its seventh edition.