Category: Biography

John Clare by William Hilton

John Clare Biography

John Clare CLARE, JOHN (1793–1864), an English poet, was born 13 July 1793, at Helpstone, a village halfway between Peterborough and Stamford. Early Life John Clare had a twin sister who died before him....

This Herman Melville biography will introduce you the fascinating author of Moby Dick.

Herman Melville Biography

In this brief Herman Melville Biography, you will learn about his first job at the age of 12 and how his sea adventures were transformed into literature.

Henry James biography

Henry James Biography

American author Henry James, a transitional figure between literary realism and modernism, is often numbered among the great English-language novelists.

Daniel Defoe,

Daniel Defoe Biography

Learn more about the life, character, and career of the 17th-century British author of Robinson Crusoe and other works in this Daniel Defoe biography.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, as a dashing figure in 1840.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge Biography

The Life of Samuel Taylor Coleridge Birth and parents Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834), an English poet and philosopher, was born on the 21st of October 1772, at his father’s vicarage of Ottery St Mary’s, Devonshire....

Charles Lamb Biography

Charles Lamb, a British author and critic, is especially remembered for his Essays of Elia and Tales from Shakespeare, co-authored with his sister Mary.

Anne Bradstreet was an early member of the Massachusetts town of Ipswich.

Anne Bradstreet Biography

Anne Bradstreet was the first American Puritan writer; the first writer published in America; the first female poet published in both England and America.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Dante Gabriel Rossetti Biography

Dante Gabriel Rossetti was an English poet, illustrator, painter and translator. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais. Dante Gabriel Rossetti Biography DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI (1828~1882), English poet...

William Sydney Porter (O. Henry)

O. Henry Biography

In this 1922 O. Henry bio, you’ll learn about a surprising twist in the life of author William Sydney Porter, known for short stories with surprise endings. 

William Blake by Thomas Philips

William Blake Biography (1911)

The William Blake biography from the 1911 Encyclopedia Brittanica offers an opinionated glimpse of the life and style of author and artist, William Blake.

Oscar Wilde Biography

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was an immensely gifted English writer who produced a large variety of work ranging from humorous to tragic. He had the capacity to be ridiculous (The Importance of Being Earnest) as well as deadly serious (De Profundis).

Engraving of George Herbert, poet.

George Herbert Biography

George Herbert (1593–1633) wrote some of the most beautiful devotional poetry in the English language. Learn more about this poet’s life and work.

Edgar Lee Masters, as photographed in 1915.

Edgar Lee Masters Biography

What did contemporary scholars think of Edgar Lee Masters (1868-1950) during his lifetime? Here’s an interesting biography and analysis published in 1918, written by popular Yale professor William Lyon Phelps. Edgar Lee Masters was...

P. G. Wodehouse Biography

P. G. Wodehouse Biography  Sir Pelham Grenville (P. G.) Wodehouse (1881 – 1975) was a British humorist whose life spanned nearly a century. Best known for his novels featuring Bertie and Jeeves, Wodehouse (pronounced Woodhouse) also wrote short stories,...

Jane Austen Biography

This brief Jane Austen biography by David Cody is likely to whet your appetite for learning more about Jane Austen and her works. 

Christina Rossetti was an English poet best known for "In the Bleak Midwinter" and "Goblin Market."

Christina Rossetti Biography

Christina Rossetti Biography Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830 – 1894) was an English poet who wrote a variety of romantic, devotional, and children’s poems. She is famous for writing the words to the Christmas carol In the Bleak Midwinter. The Life...

Goethe Biography (1911)

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), German poet, dramatist and philosopher, is known for Faust and Letters to a Young Poet, among other things.

Nathaniel Hawthorne Biography

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) was an American author, best known for The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables. Hawthorne resources for EIL 3.4.

Joseph Conrad, author of Heart of Darkness.

Joseph Conrad Biography

This Joseph Conrad biography comes from the Yale Modernism Lab, where you’ll find a wealth of resources about modernist writers in the years 1914-1926. You can view their original works and find out how...

Una and the Lion from Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene- {{PD-US}} – published in the US before 1923 and public domain in the US.

Spenser Timeline

What happened during Faerie Queene author Edmund Spenser’s life? This Spenser timeline covers the years from Spenser’s birth in 1552 to his death in 1599.

Edmund Spenser

Edmund Spenser Biography

The Life of Edmund Spenser Author of The Faerie Queene Spenser biography Dr. George Armstrong Wauchope, Professor of English, South Carolina College Birth and early years Edmund Spenser was born in London near the...

T.S. Eliot and Virginia Woolf were friends who influenced each other's works.

T. S. Eliot Biography

This biography of T.S. Eliot comes from the Yale Modernism Lab, where you’ll find a wealth of resources about modernist writers in the years 1914-1926. You can view their original works and find out...

Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American Transcendentalist poet and writer.

Ralph Waldo Emerson Biography

Biography of Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) by Dr. Ann Woodlief Ralph Waldo Emerson is truly the center of the American transcendental movement, setting out most of its ideas and values in a little book, Nature,...

Scholar and writer C.S. Lewis, as photographed by Walter Stoneman in 1955.

C. S. Lewis Biography

British writer and scholar C.S Lewis (1898–1963) is the author of the Chronicles of Narnia, Till We Have Faces, Mere Christianity, and many scholarly works.

Henry David Thoreau Biography

Henry David Thoreau Biography by Dr. Ann Woodlief Henry David Thoreau was a complex man of many talents who worked hard to shape his craft and his life, seeing little difference between them. Born...

Gerard Manley Hopkins by Foreshaw & Coles

Gerard Manley Hopkins: An Analytical Biography

This essay on the life and work of Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889), English poet and priest, was first published in The Poets’ Chantry by Katherine Brégy (1912). It does not attempt to cover every aspect of Hopkins’...