Richard Anthony Proctor was perhaps the most famous and successful writer on astronomy within the English-speaking world in the late nineteenth century. His astronomical career included work on Mars and stellar drift. Proctor’s turn to popularization produced around 6 books and 500 articles, more than 1500 lectures across several national and international lecture tours, and the journal Knowledge (1881–1918). The most successful of his works was Other Worlds than Ours (1870) in which he would explore the possibilities of extraterrestrial life and lay the foundation for his later ideas on cosmic evolution. Proctor’s emphasis on public writing represented his vision of independent, entrepreneurial researchers in contrast to government-funded scientists. In prosecuting this position, he fell out with much of the United Kingdom’s astronomical establishment. At his death aged 51, Proctor left behind an enormous volume of work and a considerable public reputation that would survive well into the twentieth century.