Clement Shorter was born in London, the youngest of three boys. The son of Richard and Elizabeth (nee Clemenson) Shorter, young Clement attended school from 1863 to 1871 in Downham Market, Norfolk. He was still a young boy when his father died in Melbourne, Australia, where he had gone in an attempt to make a better life for his young family.

Once finished with his schooling, Shorter spent four years working for several booksellers and publishers on Paternoster Row in London. In 1877, he found himself working in the Exchequer and Audit Department at Somerset House, as a low-level clerk.

Shorter married twice, first to Dora Sigerson, an Irish poet. He married her in 1896, and she died in 1918. In 1920, he remarried, to a woman from Penzance, named Annie Doris Banfield. Shorter, survived by his wife and daughter, died on 19 November 1926, in his home at Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire.

In journalism

Shorter's career in journalism began in 1888, when he began working as a sub-editor for the Penny Illustrated Paper. At that time, he was also writing for The Star, a weekly column about books. By 1890, he had resigned his clerical position at Somerset House, to focus solely on his journalistic endeavors.

An important influence on the English pictorial press, in 1891 he became editor of the Illustrated London News. By 1893, he had founded and edited Sketch. In 1900, he founded Sphere, which he edited up until his death in 1926. During this time, Shorter maintained writing his controversial weekly column, "A Literary Letter." He described the content of the two papers he edited during this time (first, The Sphere, and shortly thereafter, The Tatler") as "on more frivolous lines."

In addition to founding Sketch and The Sphere, he was also the founder of The Tatler.

As an author, literary critic, and collector

It is difficult to separate Shorter's career as an author and critic from his hobby of collecting manuscripts, books, and other materials related to his favorite authors. He was an avid collector, particularly focusing on the works of the Brontë sisters. This collecting and research eventually led to some of his most well-known works, including two books about Charlotte Brontë, and two books about the Brontë family. Additionally, he edited Elizabeth Gaskell's The Life of Charlotte Brontë in 1899. Shorter's own works of literary criticism include The Brontës and their Circle (1896), Immortal Memories (1907), Life and Letters (1908), and George Borrow and his Circle (1913).

Shorter also wrote multiple books about Napoleon, two about George Borrow, as well as a volume of addresses and essays. His last published work was C. K. S.: an Autobiography, which was edited by J.M. Bulloch, and published posthumously, in 1927.