John Galsworthy was one of the great British writers of the early 20th century, and won a Nobel Prize for his work. Galsworthy was a dramatist of considerable technical skill. His plays often took up specific social grievances such as the double standard of justice as applied to the upper and lower classes; and the confrontation of capital and labor.

In 1890 he was called to the bar, but he never practiced law.

The Little Dream was written in 1911. In 1930, the Australian composer, Mirrie Hill, O.B.E., based an orchestral suite of five pieces on the play.

Written in the early months of 1909, accidents happy and unhappy prevented the performance of The Eldest Son earlier than November 1912. Another entry in Galsworthy's chronicle of the decline of the upper middle classes: the eldest son is expected to marry well and settle down, but has instead impregnated the maid.