Despite the fact that the philosophical ideas of Francis Bacon are well studied and described, little attention is paid to his life in the literature. The monograph by I. S. Dmitriev, the first biography of F. Bacon in Russian, was written on the basis of archival materials and a wide range of primary sources. The life of the book's hero is presented in the context of a complex era filled with dramatic events in the history of England in the second half of the 16th - early 17th centuries. One of the most gifted people of his time, Francis Bacon devoted a lot of energy and time not only to philosophy, but also to active political activity. In the book he appears in various guises - philosopher, lawyer, politician, courtier. The author touches in detail on the little-studied, surrounded by numerous myths, history of the impeachment of F. Bacon, who held the post of Lord Chancellor of England at the peak of his political career and was accused in 1621 of corruption. Igor Sergeevich Dmitriev is a historian of science, professor at the Institute of Human Philosophy of the Russian State Pedagogical Institute named after. A. I. Herzen.