MAX ADELER was the pseudonym of CHARLES HEBER CLARK (1841–1915) a Philadelphia journalist and author. His first book, Out of the Hurly-Burly (1874), helped establish him as one of the most popular American humourists of the late 19th century.
WILLIAM ALLINGHAM (c. 1824–1889) was born in Ballyshannon, Ireland. He worked as a customs officer in Ireland and England, during which time his first books were published, beginning with Poems (1850). After retirement he served as an editor at Fraser’s Magazine.
SIR EDWIN ARNOLD (1832–1904) was born at Gravesend, Kent, the son of a magistrate. A schoolmaster and journalist, he is often credited with having been the first to propose a Cape to Cairo railway traversing the African continent. He was the father of Edwin Lester Arnold, author of the escapist novel Lieutenant Gullivar Jones: His Vacation (1905), popularly known as Gullivar of Mars.
MATTHEW ARNOLD (1822–1888) was born in Laleham, Middlesex, the son of schoolmaster and historian Thomas Arnold. His first volume of poetry, The Strayed Reveller, was published in 1849. Eight years later he was appointed Professor of Poetry, Oxford.
HAROLD BECKH (1984–1916) was born on New Year’s Day at Great Amwell, Hertfordshire. Educated at Cambridge, intending to become a clergyman, his studies were interrupted by the First World War. He was killed while on patrol in the Robecq area of France. Swallows in Storm and Sunlight (1917), his only collection of verse, was published posthumously.
AMBROSE BIERCE (1842–?1914) was born to a farming couple near Horse Cave Creek, Ohio. After receiving a head wound while serving on the Union side in the American Civil War, he embarked on a series of careers, the most successful of which was as a newspaperman. Bierce disappeared while reporting on the Mexican Revolution.
WILLIAM BLAKE (1757–1827) was born into a middle-class family in London. A poet, painter and printmaker, he was educated by his mother and, later, at a drawing school and the Royal Academy. Blake is best remembered for his illuminated books, beginning with All Religions Are One (c. 1788).
JEAN BLEWETT (1862–1934) was born Jean McKishnie in Scotia, Canada West (Ontario). Educated at St Thomas Collegiate Institute, she began contributing to newspapers and periodicals while in her teens. Her first volume of verse, Heart Songs, was published in 1897.
FRANCIS WILLIAM BOURDILLON (1852–1921) was born in Buddington, Sussex. Educated at Cambridge, Bourdillon was a tutor by profession. Thirteen volumes of verse were published during his lifetime, the first being Among the Flowers and Other Poems. (1878).
ANNE BRADSTREET (c. 1612–1672) was born Anne Dudley, in Northampton, England. She emigrated to North America in 1630, where both her father and husband would serve as governors of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Highly educated, she wrote on history, politics, theology and medicine. Her The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America, by a Gentlewoman in such Parts (1650) is considered the first volume of verse by an American woman.
CHRISTOPHER BRENNAN (1870–1921) was born in Sydney, Australia. He studied in Australia and, after winning a travelling scholarship, Germany. His first volume of verse, XXI poems, was published in 1897.
EMILY BRONTË (1818–1848) was born in Thornton, Yorkshire, the fifth of six children who included the novelists Charlotte and Anne Brontë. Her only volume of verse, Poems of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell (1846), sold only two copies. She is best remembered for the novel Wuthering Heights (1847).
RUPERT BROOKE (1887–1915) was born at Rugby, Warwickshire. A graduate of Cambridge, his first collection of verse, Poems, was published in 1911. He died of blood poisoning while serving in the First World War.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING (1806–1861) was born Elizabeth Barrett Moulton-Barrett at Coixhoe Hall, near Durham, England. Her first book, The Battle of Marathon, a work of juvenilia, was published at the age of fourteen by her father. An accomplished and popular poet, she was thought of as a possible successor to William Wordsworth as England’s poet laureate. She was married to the poet Robert Browning.
ROBERT BROWNING (1812–1889) was born in Camberwell, south London, the son of a well-paid clerk with the Bank of England. His education is said to have come primarily through his father’s 6,000-volume library. Browning received little notice until the publication of his second volume of verse, Paracelsus (1835). He was married to the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT (1794–1878) was born in Cummington, Massachusetts. Educated at Williams College, he was admitted to the bar and worked for a time as a lawyer. He later relocated to New York City, where he worked as a journalist for The New York Review and The New York Evening Post. He used his position as editor of the latter publication in the fight against slavery.
JOHN BUNYAN (1628–1688) was born in Harrowden, Elstow. A man with little schooling, he served briefly in the Parliamentary army. In 1653, he was received into the Baptist Church and two years later became a deacon. He is best remembered for his allegorical novel The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678), composed while he was imprisoned for preaching without a licence.
ROBERT BURNS (1759–1796) was born in Alloway, South Ayshire, Scotland, the son of a farming couple. His childhood was spent in poverty and much of his education came through his father who supplemented his modest income through tutoring. In 1783, he began composing poetry, employing the Ayrshire dialect. The publication three years later of his first volume of verse, Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, established his reputation as national poet of Scotland.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1835–1902) was born into a family of Anglican clerics at Langar Rectory, near Bingham, Nottinghamshire. Following his studies at Cambridge, in preparation for entering the clergy, he abandoned the church, and emigrated to New Zealand where he worked as a sheep farmer. Five years later, he returned to England. He settled into a literary life, writing the classic novels Erewhon (1872) and The Way of All Flesh (1902), among others.
GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON (1788–1824) was born in London. At the age of ten he inherited the title and estates of his great-uncle, the 5th Baron Byron. In 1806, the year after he began studies at Cambridge, he published Fugitive Pieces, his first collection of verse. A prolific poet and one of the leading figures in Romanticism, his accomplished works are often overshadowed by an extravagant life of scandal, intrigue and sexual adventure.
THOMAS CAMPBELL (1777–1844) was born in Glasgow. He was educated at the University of Glasgow, where he was awarded prizes for his verse. Although he had contemplated a career in law, the early success of his long poem, The Pleasures of Hope (1799), encouraged a career in letters. As a professional writer, he contributed to newspapers, magazines and encyclopaedias, and served for over a decade as the editor of The New Monthly Review.
WILFRED CAMPBELL (1858–1918) was born in Newmarket, Canada West (Ontario), the son of an Anglican minister. After an education received at a number of institutions, including the University of Toronto, University College, in 1884 Campbell was ordained into the Anglican priesthood. Seven years later, he suffered a crisis of faith, resigned from the church, and accepted a civil service position in Ottawa. He wrote six collections of verse and served as the editor of The Oxford Book of Canadian Verse (1913).
THOMAS CAMPION (1567–1620) was born in London. A poet, composer and physician, Campion studied at Cambridge. His earliest published poetry appears in Sir Philip Sidley’s Astrophel and Stella (1591). Campion’s early study of verse, Observations in the Art of English Poesie (1602), contains criticism of rhyming in poetry.
THOMAS CAREW (1595–1640), the son of Sir Thomas Carew, was born in West Wickham, Kent. Educated at Oxford, he served in a variety of diplomatic positions in Europe, before being appointed to the court of Charles I.
HENRY CAREY (1687–1743), rumoured to be the illegitimate son of George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax, was born in London to a teaching couple. A dramatist, psalmist, songwriter and poet, much of Carey’s work was published anonymously, and is likely to remain unidentified. His earliest known verse appears in Poems on Several Occasions (1703).
BLISS CARMAN (1861–1929), a first cousin of Sir Charles G. D. Roberts, was born in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Though in his time he was Canada’s best-known poet, his adult life was largely spent in the United States. There, he worked as a contributor and editor for a number of magazines, including The Atlantic Monthly and Cosmopolitan.
LEWIS CARROLL was the pseudonym of CHARLES LUTWIDGE DODGSON (1832–1898). An author, mathematician and photographer, he was born in Daresbury, Cheshire, the son of an Anglican clergyman. After studies at Oxford, Dodgson followed his father into the church. He is best remembered as the author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and its sequel Through the Looking Glass (1871).
PHOEBE CARY (1824–1871) was born to a farming couple near Cincinnati, Ohio. Her education was received from her elder sister Alice. Following the modest success of their first collection of verse, Poems of Alice and Phoebe Carey [sic], published in 1850, the sisters relocated to New York City, where they became regular contributors to Harper’s, The Atlantic Monthly and other popular periodicals.
THOMAS CHATTERTON (1752–1770) was born in Bristol, England to a widowed mother. Educated at a charity school, Chatterton struggled greatly in an attempt to support himself through writing. Ulltimately, impoverished, he chose arsenic over starvation, committing suicide at the age of seventeen. He is often considered the first Romantic poet writing in the English language.
G. K. CHESTERTON (1874–1936) was born in London. He studied at Slade School of Art and University College, before embarking on a career that encompassed journalism, criticism, biography, detective fiction and verse. A prolific writer, sixty-nine Chesterton titles were published during his lifetime.
JOHN CLARE (1793–1864) was born in Helpston, Cambridgeshire. The son of a farm labourer, his first verse was written in an attempt to prevent the eviction of his parents from their home. His highly praised first collection of verse, Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery (1820), led to his title ‘the Northamptonshire Peasant Poet’.
ARTHUR HUGH CLOUGH (1819–1861) was born on New Year’s Day in Liverpool. At the age of three, his father, a cotton merchant, relocated the family to Charleston, South Carolina. Clough returned to England to take up studies at Rugby School and later continued his education at Oxford. After graduation he held several positions as an educator and worked as an unpaid assistant to his wife’s cousin, Florence Nightingale.
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE (1772–1834) was born in Ottery St Mary, Devonshire, the youngest of 16 children. He was educated at Jesus College and Cambridge. A poet, critic and philosopher, he was a key figure in the Romantic movement and counted Robert Southey and William Wordsworth among his closest friends. Coleridge’s literary output was both aided and hindered by an addiction to opium.
WILLIAM CONGREVE (1670–1729) was born in Bardsey, west Yorkshire. His youth was spent in Ireland. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where he met Jonathan Swift, who would become a lifelong friend. Primarily a dramatist, he wrote five successful plays between 1693 and 1700, before abandoning the craft. He was supported for the remainder of his life by the residuals.
WILLIAM COWPER (1731–1800) was born in Berkhamstead, Hertfordshire. After studying at Westminster School, his training for a career in law ended with the first of many bouts of mental illness. He sought strength through evangelical Christianity and, collaborating with John Newton, became one of the foremost composer of hymns.
HART CRANE (1899–1932) was born in Garrettsville, Ohio. His father had made a fortune in the confectionery business as the inventor of the Life Saver. A high-school drop out, Crane worked periods as an advertising copywriter and on the floor in his father’s factory. The poor reception of his greatest work, The Bridge (1930), may have been one of the contributing factors to his suicide, the result of jumping off a ship in the Gulf of Mexico.
STEPHEN CRANE (1871–1900) was born in Newark, New Jersey, the fourteenth child of a Methodist minister. He began writing for The New York Tribune and local newspapers while in his teens. After being expelled from Lafayette College and Syracuse University, he moved to New York, where he began a career as a freelance writer. He is best remembered for his novel of the American Civil War, The Red Badge of Courage (1895).
RICHARD CRASHAW (c. 1613–1649) was born in London and educated at Charterhouse School, Cambridge and, briefly, Oxford. Though the son of an anti-Catholic theologian, he converted to the faith and was made a canon shortly before his death. A collection of religious verse, Carmen Deo Nostro, was published three years after his death.
ISABELLA VALANCY CRAWFORD (1850–1887) was born in Dublin and, with her family, emigrated to Canada at the age of six. In her twenties, she attempted to support herself and her mother by contributing novels, short stories and poems to a variety of Canadian newspapers and magazines. One book, Old Spookses’ Pass, Malcolm’s Katie and Other Poems (1884) was published during her lifetime.
THOMAS DEKKER (c. 1572–1632) is believed to have been born in London. Principally a dramatist, most of his plays are lost. Much that survives of Dekker’s work is in the form of pamphlets he wrote on such diverse subjects as the plague and the death of Elizabeth I.
RICHARD DENNYS (1884–1916) was born in London. Though schooled in medicine, he pursued a career in the arts as a painter, actor, writer and poet. He enlisted at the outbreak of the First World War and was mortally wounded at the Battle of the Somme. His poetry is collected in There Is No Death (1917).
EMILY DICKINSON (1832–1886) was born in Amherst, Massachusetts. Though one of the great American poets, only seven of her poems saw print during her lifetime – all anonymously. The first collection of her poetry, Poems, was published four years after her death.
JOHN DONNE (1572–1631) was born in London. Educated at Oxford and Cambridge, he served as a Member of Parliament and was ordained into the Church of England. His collection of verse, Poems, was published in 1633.
ERNEST DOWSON (1867–1900) was born in Lee, south east London. Associated with the Decadent movement, Dowson’s life was one of tragedy and loss. He died of alcoholism or tuberculosis – perhaps a combination of the two. After his death, Dowson’s verse was collected and published with a memoir by Arthur Symons as The Poems of Ernest Dowson (1902).
JOHN DRYDEN (1631–1700) was born in Aldwinkle, Northampshire. He studied as a King’s Scholar under Richard Busby at Westminster School and at Trinity College, Cambridge. His talents as a poet and critic overshadowed somewhat his career as a playwright. In 1668 he was appointed Poet Laureate, a position he held for more than two decades.
PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR (1872–1906) was born in Dayton, Ohio, the son of former slaves. His father was a veteran of the American Civil War. His first poetic recital was made at the age of nine. Dunbar’s verse first saw print as a high-school student in a newspaper printed by his friends Wilbur and Orville Wright. Oak and Ivy, the first of his 12 collections of verse, was published in 1892. His wife was the poet and short-story writer Alice Dunbar-Nelson.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON (1803–1882) was born in Boston. After attending Harvard, he worked as an educator, before returning to become a Unitarian minister like his father. After three years, in 1832, he resigned from the church. An essayist and poet, Emerson derived much of his income through his skills as a public orator.
EUGENE FIELD (1850–1895) was born in St Louis, Missouri. After studies at Williams College and the University of Missouri, he embarked on a career as a journalist, columnist and newspaper editor. His poetry, written for children, first appeared in his book Christmas Treasures (1879).
FRANCIS MILES FINCH (1827–1907) was born in Ithica, New York. A Yale graduate, he practised law, served on the bench, and lectured at Cornell University, an institution he had helped to establish.
MARJORY FLEMING (1803–1811) was born in Kirkaldy, Scotland. A child writer and poet, she died of meningitis at the age of eight. Her writing was first published as Pet Marjorie: A Story of Child Life Fifty Years Ago (1858).
MARY WESTON FORDHAM (c. 1862–unknown) was most likely born in Charleston, South Carolina. An African-American, her only collection of poetry, Magnolia Leaves (1897), includes an introduction by Booker T. Washington.
CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN (1860–1935) was born Charlotte Anne Perkins in Hartford, Connecticut. She was the niece of Harriet Beecher Stowe. Gilman studied at the Rhode Island school of Design and for two years worked as a greeting card artist. A writer of fiction, non-fiction and poetry Gilman is best remembered for her short story, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’, which was inspired by her struggles with mental illness.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH (1728–1774) was born in Pallas, near Ballymahon, Ireland, the son of an Anglican curate. He studied theology, law and medicine, eventually becoming a physician and apothecary’s assistant. A gambler, perennially in debt, he supplemented his income by freelance writing for a number of London publishers and is thought to have been the author of The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes (1765). He is best remembered for his novel The Vicar of Wakefield (1766) and the play She Stoops to Conquer (1771).
ADAM LINDSAY GORDON (1833–1870) was born at Fayal in the Azores, the son of an English Army officer. Raised in Cheltenham, England, he rejected the family tradition of military service, and, in 1853, emigrated to Australia. For a brief period he served in the South Australian mounted police, before taking up horse-breaking and racing. His first book of verse, Ashtaroth, a Dramatic Lyric, was published in 1867.
HARRY GRAHAM (1874–1936) was born in England, the son of wealthy parents. He was educated at Eton and Sandhurst and later became an officer in the Coldstream Guards. After a stay in Canada as aide-de-camp to the Governor General, Lord Minto, he returned to England and worked as a journalist and writer of popular fiction.
THOMAS GRAY (1716–1771) was born in London. Educated at Eton and Cambridge, he spent most of his life in study. Anything but prolific, fewer than 1,000 lines of verse were published during his lifetime. In 1757, he became the first person to refuse the position of Poet Laureate.
THOMAS HARDY (1840–1928) was born in Higher Bockhampton, Dorset, the son of a stonemason. Trained as an architect, in 1862 he moved to London where he was awarded prizes from the Royal Institute of British Architects and the architectural Association. The author of several classic novels, including Tess of the d’Ubervilles (1891), Far from the Madding Crowd (1874) and Jude the Obscure (1895), Hardy turned his talents increasingly toward verse in later life.
W. S. HAWKINS (1837–1865) was born in Madison County, Alabama. A student at the outbreak of the American Civil War, he enlisted and quickly rose to the rank of colonel. In January, 1864, Hawkins was captured and imprisoned for the remainder of the war. He died mere months after his release.
CHARLES HEAVYSEGE (1816–1876) was probably born in Huddersfield, England. A woodcarver, he emigrated to Canada in 1853, and soon found work as a reporter for The Montreal Transcript and The Montreal Daily Witness. Heavysege asserted that there was some claim to nobility in his background. After his death, personal material was stolen from several different collections of his papers.
WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY (1849–1902) was born in Gloucester, England, the son of a bookseller. As a child, he developed what was probably tubercular arthritis, a condition that interrupted his schooling, and resulted in the amputation of part of his left leg. His earliest published poems were written while undergoing treatment at an Edinburgh hospital After his recovery, Henley worked as an editor for London and The Scots Observer.
GEORGE HERBERT (1593–1633) was born in Montgomery, Wales. He studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he later taught, and served as a Member of Parliament. All of his surviving poems are religious in nature. His only collection, The Temple: Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations (1633), was published posthumously.
ROBERT HERRICK (1591–1674) was born in London, the son of a wealthy goldsmith who committed suicide when the future poet was one year old. He attended Cambridge, took religious orders and became chaplain to the Duke of Buckingham.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES SR (1809–1894) was born at Cambridge, Massachusetts, and educated in Andover, Boston and Paris. His prominence as a physician and professor of anatomy was overshadowed by greater fame as a poet of national prominence. His son, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr, was a hero of the American Civil War and served as Justice of the Supreme Court.
THOMAS HOOD (1799–1845) was born in London, the son of a bookseller. He served in a number of editorial positions with London Magazine, The Gem and The New Monthly Magazine, and was a part-owner of the literary journal The Athenaeum.
GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS (1844–1889) was born in Stratford, Essex, the son of an insurance agent and amateur poet. During his studies at Oxford, he converted from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism and eventually became a Jesuit priest. It wasn’t until nearly three decades after Hopkins’ death that the first volume of his verse was published.
A. E. HOUSMAN (1859–1936) was born in Fockbury, Worcestershire. He was awarded a scholarship to Oxford, where he studied classics. For most of his life he taught Latin at Cambridge. Housman’s masterpiece, The Shropshire Lad (1896), was rejected by several publishers and was eventually published at his own expense. His siblings, Laurence and Clemence Housman, were also writers.
LEIGH HUNT (1784–1859) was born in London to loyalist parents from Philadelphia. His first collection of poems, Juvenalia, was published in 1801. As a young man he embarked on a career as a critic, which involved his editorship of The Examiner, a newspaper founded by his brother, John Hunt.
HELEN HUNT JACKSON (1831–1885) was born Helen Maria Fiske in Amherst, Massachusetts. A writer of poetry, children’s stories, novels and essays, her book, Mercy Philbrick’s Choice (1876), is said to be a fictional portrait of her friend Emily Dickinson.
SOAME JENYNS (1704–1787) was born in London, the son of Sir Roger Jenyns. Educated at Cambridge, he served as a Member of Parliament for Cambridgeshire. His first published work was the mock-heroic poem The Art of Dancing (1729).
E. PAULINE JOHNSON (Tekahionwake) (1861–1914) was born on the Six Nations Indian Reserve in Canada West (Ontario), the daughter of an Englishwoman and a Mohawk chief. In her day, a popular poet, she toured the Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States giving poetry readings. Her best-known collection of verse is Flint and Feather (1912).
BEN JONSON (1572–1637) was born in London. After graduating from Westminster School, he worked as a bricklayer, a soldier and an actor. In 1597, he was imprisoned for his roles as playwright and player in a satire, The Isle of Dogs. The following year he was again imprisoned after killing a fellow actor in a duel. The first folio collection of his works was printed in 1616.
JOHN KEATS (1795–1821) was born in London. He was apprenticed to an apothecary-surgeon. His first volume of verse, Poems, published in 1817, was poorly received. Four years later, he died of tuberculosis while visiting Italy. He was soon recognized as one of the great poets of the English Romantic movement.
T. M. KETTLE (1880–1916) was born in Artane, Ireland. A Member of Parliament, lawyer, professor and journalist, he was killed at the battle of the Somme. His wartime prose and verse is collected in The Ways of War (1917).
JOYCE KILMER (1886–1918) was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey. After graduating from Columbia University, he worked as an editor, journalist and writer of popular poetry. He enlisted in the National Guard shortly after the United States entered the First World War. Kilmer was killed by a sniper outside Ourcq, France.
BEN KING (1857–1884) was born in St Joseph, Michigan. His verse was published in newspapers and magazine, often employing the pseudonym Bow Hackley. His only collection of poetry, Ben King’s Verse (1894), was published posthumously.
CHARLES KINGSLEY (1819–1875) was born in Holne, Devon, the son of a clergyman. He studied at Cambridge and was ordained into the Church of England. His best-known work is the children’s novel, The Water-Babies (1863).
RUDYARD KIPLING (1865–1936) was born in Bombay (now Mumbai), India. He is best remembered for his books for children, The Jungle Book (1894), The Second Jungle Book (1895) and Just So Stories (1902). He wrote two collections of poetry, Barrack-Room Ballads and Other Verses (1893) and Rudyard Kipling’s Verse (1923).
RAYMOND KNISTER (1899–1932) was born in Ruscom, Ontario. He studied at Victoria College, the University of Toronto and Iowa State University. Primarily a writer of poetry and short stories, only his first novel, White Narcissus (1929), was published during his lifetime. Knister drowned while swimming in Ontario’s Lake St Clair.
CHARLES LAMB (1775–1834) was born in London. An essayist and poet, Lamb spent much of his life as a clerk with the British East India Company. He is best known for the children’s book, Tales from Shakespeare (1807), which he wrote with his sister Mary Lamb.
ARCHIBALD LAMPMAN (1861–1899) was born in Morpeth, Canada West (Ontario). While studying at Trinity College, Toronto, he contributed his first poems to the literary magazine Rouge et Noir. After an unsuccessful attempt at teaching, he obtained a job with the Post Office in Ottawa. Two collections of verse, Among the Millet and Other Poems (1888) and Lyrics of Earth (1895) were published before his death.
WILLIAM SAVAGE LANDOR (1775–1864) was born at Ipsley Court, Warwick, the son of a wealthy couple. He was expelled from both Rugby School and Oxford, being sent down from Oxford for firing a shotgun inside his rooms. His first collection of verse, Poems, was published in 1795. Landor twice fled England to avoid being sued for libel, and was staying in Florence with Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning at the time of his death.
D. H. LAWRENCE (1885–1930) was born in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire. He attended University College, Nottingham, from which he received a teaching certificate in 1908. A key figure in 20th-century literature, he is best remembered for his novel, Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1928), which on publication caused a scandal due to its explicit sex scenes and use of four-letter words.
EDWARD LEAR (1812–1888) was born in the London suburb of Highgate. An accomplished illustrator, he is best remembered for his nonsense verse which he began publishing with A Book of Nonsense (1846).
HENRY SAMBROOKE LEIGH (1837–1883) was an English author. He published several volumes of verse, the most popular of which is Carols of Cockayne (1869).
ROSANNA LEPROHON (1829–1879) was born Rosanna Eleanor Mullins in Montreal. Her first published poetry appeared in The Literary Garland at the age of 17. Primarily a writer of fiction, her best-known work is Antoinette de Mirecourt (1864).
STUART LIVINGSTONE was a Canadian. ‘December’, his only known poem, was published in A Century of Canadian Sonnets (1910), an anthology edited by Lawrence J. Burpee.
FREDERICK LOCKER-LAMPSON (1821–1895) was born Frederick Locker in London. Employed in the Civil Service, he left upon marrying Lady Charlotte Bruce, daughter of Lord Elgin. Following her death, he again married, this time adopting his wife’s surname. His first collection of verse, London Lyrics, was published in 1857.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW (1807–1882) was born in Portland, Maine. Educated at Bowdoin College, he taught there and at Harvard. Among his more popular works are Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie (1847) and The Song of Hiawatha (1855).
RICHARD LOVELACE (1618–1659) was born at Lovelace Palace, Kent. A member of the nobility, he was imprisoned briefly for his support of the Royalists. All his poetry was published posthumously.
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL (1819–1891) was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He studied law at Harvard, but after graduation chose to pursue a life in letters. His first collection of verse, A Fable for Critics, was published in 1848. He served as the first editor of The Atlantic Monthly.
WALTER SCOTT STEWART LYON (1886–1915) was a member of the 9th Royal Scots at the outbreak of the First World War. He served in France and Belgium and was killed by shellfire near Ypres. His only book, Easter at Ypres 1915 and Other Poems, was published in 1916.
AGNES MAULE MACHAR (1837–1927) was born in Kingston, Upper Canada (Ontario), the daughter of a Presbyterian minister and future principal of Queen’s University, Canada. A novelist, poet and historian, she was a key figure in the literary life of Victorian Canada. She often published under the pseudonym ‘Fidelis’.
CHARLES MAIR (1838–1927) was born in Lanark, Upper Canada (Ontario). He studied medicine at Queen’s University, Canada but left to work in his family’s lumber business. His first book, Dreamland and Other Poems, was published in 1868. He was a participant in the Red River Rebellion and was briefly imprisoned by the freedom fighter, Louis Riel. He is best remembered for the verse play Tecumseh: A Drama (1886).
KATHERINE MANSFIELD (1888–1923) was born Katherine Mansfield Beauchamp in Wellington, New Zealand. She studied at Queen’s College, London, during which time she began to write sketches and prose poems. Although she returned to New Zealand, much of the rest of her life was spent moving around the literary circles of Europe. Her debut collection of verse, Poems, was published in 1923.
CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE (1564–1593) was most probably born in Canterbury, England. Marlowe was educated at Cambridge, during which time he wrote his first known drama, Dido, Queen of Carthage (1594), possibly in collaboration with Thomas Nashe. Considered the foremost Elizabethan playwright before William Shakespeare, he was murdered in mysterious circumstances.
ANDREW MARVELL (1621–1678) was born in Winestead-in-Holderness, East Yorkshire, the son of a clergyman. He attended Cambridge and served many years as a Member of Parliament.
JOHN McCRAE (1872–1918) was born in Guelph, Ontario. He studied medicine at the University of Toronto and McGill. McCrae’s earliest war poetry was written while serving in the Boer War. He died of pneumonia complicated by meningitis at a hospital in Boulogne, France during the First World War. His only volume of poetry, In Flanders Fields and Other Poems (1919), was published posthumously.
THOMAS D’ARCY McGEE (1825–1868) was born in Carlingford, Ireland. A participant in the rebellion of 1848, he worked for a number of Irish newspapers in Ireland and the United States. In 1857, he settled in Montreal where, as a journalist and Member of Parliament, he sought a united British North America. His death, probably the result of a Fenian conspiracy, remains the only assassination of a federal politician in Canada.
ALEXANDER McLACHLAN (1818–1896) was born in Johnstone, Scotland. In 1840, he emigrated to Caldon, Upper Canada (Ontario). He farmed and worked as a civil servant, a position he obtained through his friendship with Thomas d’Arcy McGee. He wrote five volumes of verse, the first of which was The Spirit of Love and Other Poems (1846).
HERMAN MELVILLE (1819–1891) was born in New York City. After an education that suffered due to the financial situation of his father, he found employment as a sailor, a schoolteacher and, ultimately, as a customs inspector. His masterpiece, Moby-Dick (1851), is often cited as ‘The Great American Novel’.
GEORGE MEREDITH (1828–1909) was born in Portsmouth, England. He studied law, but ultimately chose to pursue a career in journalism. Although he is best remembered as a novelist, his first book was a collection of verse entitled Poems (1851). His first wife was the daughter of Thomas Love Peacock.
ALICE MEYNELL (1847–1922) was born in London. An editor and critic, her first collection of poetry, Preludes, was published in 1875.
JOHN MILTON (1608–1674) was born in London, the son of a composer. He studied at Cambridge, during which time he wrote some of his finest poetry. His masterpiece, Paradise Lost, was published in 1667.
HAROLD MONRO (1879–1932) was born in Brussels to Scottish parents. Educated at Cambridge, his first volume of verse, Poems, was published in 1906. As the proprietor of the Poetry Bookshop in London, he helped bring the work of many poets to public attention.
L. M. MONTGOMERY (1874–1942) was born in Clifton (now New London), Prince Edward Island. She attended Prince of Wales College and Dalhousie University. She is best known as the author of the children’s novel Anne of Green Gables (1908), considered the best-selling work in Canadian literature.
SUSANNA MOODIE (1803–1885) was born Susanna Strickland in Bungay, England. The younger sister of Catharine Parr Traill, she was one of a family of writers. Her first book, Spartacus, was published in 1822. In 1832, she relocated with her husband and daughter, emigrating to Upper Canada. Her early pioneer experiences are recorded in her best-known work, Roughing It in the Bush (1852).
CLEMENT C. MOORE (1779–1863) was born in New York City. A professor of Oriental and Greek literature at Columbia College, he is best known as the author of ‘A Visit from St Nicholas’.
THOMAS MOORE (1779–1852) was born in Dublin and educated at Trinity College. A poet, novelist, translator and balladeer, Moore also served as literary executor for Lord Byron.
WILLIAM MORRIS (1834–1896) was born in Walthamstow, England. He was educated at Oxford, where he became friends with Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Although he is remembered today for his designs in furniture, decoration and architecture, Morris, was also a prolific writer. His first book of verse, The Defence of Guenevere and Other Poems, was published in 1858.
THOMAS NASHE (1567–?1601) was probably born in Lowestoft, Suffolk. He began studies at Cambridge, but left for an unknown reason. By 1589, he was living in London, where he pursued a life in letters as a poet, playwright, pamphleteer and satirist. Although he is memorialized in Charles Fitzjeoffry’s Affaniae (1601), his death is otherwise unrecorded.
CHARLES, LORD NEAVES (1800–1876) was born in Edinburgh. A lawyer, theologian and judge, he served as Lord of Justiciary and Rector of the University of St Andrews. He was a frequent contributor to Blackwood’s Magazine.
EDITH NESBIT (1858–1924) was born in London. A writer of poetry, novels and short stories, she received commercial and critical success for her children’s novels, including The Railway Children (1906).
STANDISH O’GRADY (c. 1793–c.1841), born in Ireland, was a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin. An Anglican minister, he emigrated to Lower Canada (Quebec) in 1836, settling on a farm on the south bank of the St Lawrence River near the town of Sorel. Only one of his works, The Emigrant: A Poem in Four Cantos (1840), was published during his lifetime.
ARTHUR O’SHAUGHNESSY (1844–1881) was born in London. Employed from a young age at the British Museum, his true interests lay in literature. O’Shaughnessy’s first collection of verse, Epic of Women, was published in 1870.
WILFRED OWEN (1893–1918) was born in Oswestry, Shropshire. Educated at the Birkenhead Institute and the University of London, he worked as a teacher before enlisting to fight in the First World War. He was killed by German machine-gun fire seven days before the Armistice. The first collection of his verse, Poems (1920), was published posthumously.
COVENTRY PATMORE (1823–1896) was born in Woodford, Essex, the son of author Peter George Patmore. Privately educated, and very much under his father’s influence, he immersed himself in literary life. After the lukewarm reception given to his first book, Poems (1844), he bought the remaining stock and had it destroyed. His most accomplished work is The Unknown Eros (1877).
THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK (1785–1866) was born in Melcombe Regis, now Weymouth, Dorset. He moved to London at the age of sixteen, where he took up independent study in the British Museum. In 1804, he self-published his first volume of verse, The Monks of St Mark. Twenty volumes, consisting of his novels, verse and essays, were published before his death at the age of 90.
MARJORIE PICKTHALL (1883–1922) was born in Middlesex, England. In 1889, with her family she emigrated to Canada, settling in Toronto. Her first writing was sold as a student attending Bishop Strachan School. She divided her adult years between England and Canada, during which time her poetry and short stories appeared in dozens of magazines and newspapers.
EDGAR ALLAN POE (1809–1849) was born in Boston. His brief studies at the University of Virginia were followed by a short stint in the United States Army. He eventually took up an extremely successful career in letters as an editor and author of ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’, ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ and other classic short stories. Poe’s first collection of verse, Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827), published anonymously as the work of ‘a Bostonian’, is one of the most sought after books by bibliophiles.
ALEXANDER POPE (1688–1744) was born in London. His first published verse appeared in Poetical Miscellanies (1709), an anthology published by Jacob Tonson. His most famous poem, ‘The Rape of the Lock’, was published in 1712.
MATTHEW PRIOR (1664–1721) was born in Wimborne Minster, east Dorset. He was educated under Richard Busby at Westminster School and at Cambridge. A poet and diplomat, he served as a Member of Parliament for East Grinstead.
FRANCIS QUARLES (1592–1644) was born in Romford, Essex. He was educated at Cambridge and studied law at Lincoln’s Inn. He served in a number of public positions including City Chronologer of London. During the English Civil War, he wrote pamphlets in support of Charles I.
SIR WALTER RALEIGH (c. 1552–1618) was born near Budleigh Salterton, Devon. He was the half-brother of Sir Humphrey Gilbert. A soldier and explorer, he was responsible for establishing the first English colony in North America. Accused of conspiring against James I, he was sentenced to death. For 13 years he was imprisoned in the Tower of London, but was released. In 1618, the death sentence was reinstated and he was executed.
JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY (1849–1916) was born in Greenfield, Indiana, the son of a well-to-do lawyer. He left school at an early age and soon began contributing verse to The Indianapolis Saturday Mirror under the name ‘Jay Whit’, the first step on a path that would lead him to becoming a popular, nationally recognized poet. In his native country he was often dubbed the ‘People’s Laureate’.
EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON (1869–1935) was born to a wealthy family in Alna, Maine. Robinson’s studies at Harvard were interrupted by the death of his father, an event that seemed to trigger a series of tragedies culminating in poverty. Dedicated to his craft, but unable to make a living through his writing, he spent much of his life as an inspector for the New York subway and later worked at a United States Customs House.
ISAAC ROSENBERG (1890–1918) was born in Bristol, England to Russian immigrants. Though he considered himself first and foremost a portrait artist, Rosenberg was a talented poet. His first collection of verse, Night and Day, was published in 1912. He was killed near the French village of Frampoux during the First World War.
CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI (1830–1894) was born into a literary household in London. Her siblings included Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Michael Rossetti and Maria Francesca Rossetti. Her first collection of verse, Goblin Market and Other Poems, was published in 1862.
DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI (1828–1882) was born Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti in London. A talented artist, he was at the forefront of the Pre-Raphaelite movement. His sister was Christina Georgina Rossetti.
CHARLES SANGSTER (1822–1893) was born in Kingston, Upper Canada (Ontario). As a young man, he held a variety of newspaper positions, before settling into a career in mid-life with the Ottawa Post Office. Two volumes of verse, The St Lawrence and the Saguenay and Other Poems (1856) and Hesperus and Other Poems and Lyrics (1860), were published during his lifetime.
H. SMALLEY SARSON (1890–unknown) was born in London, England. A farmer, he enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force at the beginning of the First World War. Sarson wrote two slim volumes of verse, From Field and Hospital (1916) and A Reliquary of War (date unknown).
SIR CHARLES SEDLEY (1639–1701) was probably born in Aylesford, Kent, the son of Sir John Sedley. Educated at Oxford, he left without obtaining a degree. A Member of Parliament, he is best known as a playwright. The Mulberry Garden, his first piece for the theatre, was performed in 1668.
ALAN SEEGER (1888–1916) was born in New York City and spent much of his early childhood in Mexico. Educated at Harvard, he was conducting research in London when the First World War began. He served in the French Foreign Legion and was killed at Belloy-en-Santerre. A collection of his verse, Poems, was published a few months later.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564–1616) was born in England at Stratford-on-Avon. A poet and playwright, he is widely considered the greatest writer in the English language.
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY (1792–1822), the son of Sir Timothy Shelley, was raised in Sussex, England. A graduate of Eton, he enrolled at Oxford in 1810, only to be expelled the following year as the author of the pamphlet, The Necessity of Atheism (1811). His first published poetry was Queen Mab (1813). Shelley drowned the month before his thirtieth birthday. His second wife was Mary Shelley.
FRANCIS SHERMAN (1871–1926) was born in Fredericton, New Brunswick. He studied at the University of New Brunswick, but his poor financial situation forced him to leave. He began what would become an extremely successful career in banking. Sherman’s first collection of poems, Matins, was published in 1896. Although other volumes followed, within five years he had ceased writing verse.
SIR PHILIP SIDNEY (1554–1586) was born in Penshurst, Kent, the eldest son of Sir Henry Sidney. Educated at Oxford, he served as Governor of Flushing in the Netherlands. He died from a fatal wound received in the Battle of Zutphen.
CHARLES HAMILTON SORLEY (1895–1915) was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, the son of a university professor. He deferred a scholarship to Oxford to serve in the First World War and was killed in the battle of Loos. A collection of verse, Marlborough and Other Poems, was published the year after his death.
ROBERT SOUTHEY (1774–1843) was born in Bristol, England. Educated at Oxford, he was a literary scholar and biographer. In 1813, he was made Poet Laureate, a position offered after Sir Walter Scott refused it.
EDMUND SPENSER (c. 1552–1599) was born in London. Educated at Cambridge, his most famous work is The Faerie Queen, written in praise of Elizabeth I.
J. K. STEPHEN (1859–1892) was born in London. He studied at Eton and Cambridge and was tutor to Prince Edward of Wales. He is one of many suspects posited as Jack the Ripper.
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON (1850–1894) was born in Edinburgh. He studied law at the University of Edinburgh, though he never practised. He travelled widely and wrote some of the greatest classics of the Victorian era, including Treasure Island (1883), The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) and Kidnapped (1886).
SIR JOHN SUCKLING (1609–1642) was born in Whitton, Middlesex. He attended Cambridge, but left before earning a degree. A soldier, ambassador, playwright and poet, he is credited with having invented the game of cribbage.
ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE (1837–1909) was born in London. A graduate of Eton and Oxford, he was one of England’s foremost Decadent poets. His early work led some to believe that he might one day be named Poet Laureate.
JONATHAN SWIFT (1667–1745) was born in Dublin and educated at Trinity College. A satirist, essayist and pamphleteer, he is best known for his novel Gulliver’s Travels (1726).
JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS (1840–1893) was born in Bristol, England, the son of a physician who was also the author of several books on health. He was educated at Oxford, and became a leading literary critic of his day.
JOHN BANISTER TABB (1845–1909) was born to a wealthy Episcopalian family near Richmond, Virginia. After a private education, he served in the Confederate Navy during the American Civil War. Following the war, he converted to Catholicism and became a priest. He taught at St Charles’s College until he was overcome by blindness.
BERT LESTON TAYLOR (1866–1921) was an American humourist and journalist from the Midwest. He was the author of ten books, including Line-o’-type Lyrics (1902).
SARA TEASDALE (1884–1933) was born SARAH TEASDALE in St Louis, Missouri. A sickly child, until the age of nine she was unable to attend school. Her first volume of verse, Helen of Troy and Other Poems, was published in 1911. Teasdale committed suicide at the age of 48.
E. WYNDHAM TENNANT (1897–1916) was born in Wiltshire, England, the son of Baron Glenconnor. His younger brother was Stephen Tennant. At the age of 17, during the First World War, he enlisted in the army and was killed by a sniper at the battle of the Somme.
ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON (1809–1892) was born in Somersby, Lincolnshire, the son of a clergyman. He was educated at Cambridge, during which time his first book, Poems, Chiefly Lyrical (1830), was published. He was forced to abandon his studies following the death of his father. In 1850, he was appointed Poet Laureate, a position he held for over four decades.
WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY (1811–1863) was born in Calcutta, India, the son of an official with the British East India Company. From the age of five, he lived most of his life in England. Once considered a rival of Dickens, he is remembered today primarily for his novel Vanity Fair (1847–1848).
EDWARD THOMAS (1878–1917) was born in London. After studying at Oxford, he began a life in letters as an author, editor and critic. He did not begin writing verse until 1914, the year before he joined up for the First World War. He was killed by a shell at Arras, France.
HENRY DAVID THOREAU (1817–1862) was born in Concord, Massachusetts. Educated at Harvard, he is best known for the essay Civil Disobedience (1849) and Walden (1854), his reflection upon simple living.
HENRY TIMROD (1829–1867) was born in Charleston, South Carolina, the son of a minor poet. The younger Timrod’s first collection of verse, Poems, was published in 1860. He found work as a tutor and as a journalist and editor for a number of newspapers, including The Daily South Carolinian. After his home was destroyed during the American Civil War, he was reduced to a level of poverty from which he was unable to escape. He died of tuberculosis.
CATHARINE PARR TRAILL (1802–1899) was born Catharine Strickland in London. In 1832, with her husband she emigrated to Upper Canada, settling near Peterborough on a farm adjacent to that of her sister, Susannna Moodie. Her best-known book, The Backwoods of Canada (1836), is an account of her first three years in the colony.
BERNARD FREEMAN TROTTER (1890–1917) was born in Toronto and spent much of his youth in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. He was killed while serving as a transport officer during the First World War. His only collection of verse, A Canadian Twilight and Other Poems of War and Peace, was published the month of the Armistice.
HENRY VAUGHAN (1622–1695) was born in Newton-upon-Usk, Wales. His studies in law at Oxford were interrupted by the English Civil War. He eventually became a physician and published his first book of verse, Poems with the Tenth Satire of Juvenile Englished, in 1646. He was the twin brother of philosopher and alchemist Thomas Vaughan.
EDMUND WALLER (1606–1687) was born in Buckinghamshire, England, the son of a wealthy landowner. Educated at Eton and Cambridge, he studied law at Lincoln’s Inn. At 16, he was elected to Parliament, where he developed a reputation as a skilful orator. A Royalist, he was imprisoned and, in 1643, exiled for his involvement in a plot to secure London for Charles I. After nearly a decade travelling throughout Europe, he was permitted to return to England in 1652.
WILLIAM WALSH (1663–1708) was born in Abberley, Worcestershire. He studied at Oxford, without taking a degree. Four times a Member of Parliament, he served as Gentleman of the Horse for Queen Anne. He wrote a number of essays and poems, but it is likely that his greatest contribution to letters came as a mentor to the young Alexander Pope.
ARTHUR GRAHAM WEST (1891–1917) was born in Norfolk, England and spent his childhood in London. A graduate of Oxford, he enlisted as a private in the First World War. He was killed by a sniper outside Bapaume, France.
WALT WHITMAN (1819–1892) was born in West Hills, New York. After leaving school he undertook a variety of occupations, including printer, carpenter, teacher and newspaper editor. Whitman’s key work, Leaves of Grass, was first published in 1855 as a slim volume containing 12 long poems. He spent much of the remainder of his life revising the work, adding and, on occasion, removing verse. The last edition, published the year before his death, featured nearly 400 poems.
JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER (1807–1892) was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts. Though he had little in the way of schooling, he made his literary debut at the age of 19. A dedicated abolitionist, he promoted the cause through his editorship of a number of influential publications. His greatest success came with the publication of his long narrative poem, Snow-Bound, in 1866.
ELLA WHEELER WILCOX (1850–1919) was born in Jonestown, Wisconsin. An extremely prolific and popular poet, she wrote dozens of volumes of poetry.
OSCAR WILDE (1854–1900) was born in Dublin. An outstanding student, he studied classics at Trinity College, Dublin and was granted a scholarship to Oxford. A graduate of Oxford, he was known for his satirical verse. An accomplished playwright, novelist, short story writer and poet, he is known as much for his wit as for his art.
JOHN WILMOT, EARL OF ROCHESTER (1647–1680) was born in Ditchley, Oxfordshire. A graduate of Oxford, he was known for his bawdy verse. Such was its bite, that he was banned from the court of Charles II.
CHARLES WOLFE (1791–1823) was born in Blackhall, Ireland. He studied at Trinity College, Dublin and was ordained as a minister in the Church of Ireland. His only volume of verse, Poetical Remains, appeared two years after his death from tuberculosis.
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH (1770–1850) was born in Cockermouth on the River Derwent, England. He graduated from Cambridge in 1791 and two years later published his first two collections of verse, An Evening Walk and Descriptive Sketches. In 1843, he was made Poet Laureate, a position he held until his death. His sister was the poet and diarist Dorothy Wordsworth.
SIR THOMAS WYATT (1503–1542) was born at Allington Castle, Kent. Educated at Cambridge, he spent most of his life in the service of Henry VII. He was twice imprisoned in the Tower of London, once under suspicion of being one of Anne Boleyn’s lovers.