Philip James Bailey (1816-1902) was born in Nottingham, England on April 22, 1816, the only son of Thomas Bailey (1785-1856) and his first wife, Marie-Anne (Taylor) Bailey (circa 1791-circa 1818). Thomas Bailey was a merchant, newspaper editor, and author, and P.J. Bailey showed an early interest in his father's poetic tastes, which Thomas encouraged.

P.J. Bailey initially matriculated at Glasgow University at the age of 16, planning to pursuse a career in the Presbyterian ministry. This did not last, and by 1833 he was studying law in a solicitor's office in London. He was entered a member of Lincoln's Inn in April 1834.

After reading Goethe's Faust, Bailey was inspired to write his own version, spending the years 1836-1839 working on this. It was published at his father's cost, without the author's name, by William Pickering in 1839 and printed in Manchester by W.H. Jones.

Many leading literary figures of the time, including Bulwer Lytton, R.H. Horne, and Mary Howitt all responded to Bailey's Festus with enthusiasm. He produced a second edition of the poem in 1845, which became popular in the United States; Bailey continued rewriting and adding to the poem throughout several later editions. Other works by Bailey included The Angel World, and Other Poems (1850), The Mystic, and Other Poems (1855), and The Universal Hymn (1867).

Bailey was called to the bar in 1840 but never practiced law. He later helped his father edit the Nottingham Mercury newspaper.

Bailey married Anne Reed on April 23, 1840. The couple had two children, a daughter and a son (Philip Festus James Bailey). They divorced in 1862, and on February 24, 1863 Bailey married Anne Sophia (died 1896). The couple traveled frequently to Europe, and Bailey died of influenza in Nottingham in September 1902.

[Information retrieved from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.]