For there is no heroic poem in the world but is at bottom a biography, the life of a man; also, it may be said, there is no life of a man, faithfully recorded, but is a heroic poem of its sort, rhymed or unrhymed.

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian

Essay (1837-12-06), “On Sir Walter Scott” The London and Westminster Review, No. 12/55, Art. 2 (1838-01)
    (Source)

Review of J. G. Lockhart, Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Baronet, 6 vols. (1837). Collected in Carlyle, Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1827-1855).