The Life of John Sterling was a biography of the Scottish author John Sterling (1806-1844), written by his friend, the Scottish essayist and historian, Thomas Carlyle. It was first published in 1851.

The Life of John Sterling is a biography of the Scottish author John Sterling, but it is most often read as a work of Carlyle, rather than from an interest in the life of Sterling. However, the biography portrays Sterling as someone who evidently regarded himself as equal to Carlyle, and perhaps this is one of the things that Carlyle liked about him. He was a great sounding board for Carlyle’s work, and a most entertaining and revealing passage is one in which Carlyle quotes Sterling’s analysis of his brilliant Sartor Resartus

Thomas Carlyle (4 December 1795 – 5 February 1881) was a Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher. Considered one of the most important social commentators of its time, he presented many lectures during his lifetime with certain acclaim in the Victorian era. One of those conferences resulted in his famous work "On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and The Heroic in History" where he explains that the key role in history lies in the actions of the "Great Man", claiming that "History is nothing but the biography of the Great Man".