Category: Biography

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’...

Orwell hard at work in the winter of 1945

George Orwell Timeline by Steven Kreis

George Orwell, 1903-1950 From The History Guide by Dr. Steven Kreis | Resources | Chronology | Select Bibliography | Resources George Orwell (The Chestnut Tree Cafe) George Orwell George Orwell (O. Dag) George Orwell (Petri Liukkonen)...

Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Stevenson Biography

Robert Louis Stevenson Biography By Richard Dury, from the RLS Website Life and Publications Summary Robert Lewis (later: “Louis”) Balfour Stevenson was born in Edinburgh on 13 November 1850. His father Thomas belonged to...

Howard Pyle: Illustrator

American author and illustrator Howard Pyle studied art in Philadelphia with F. A. Van der Weilen, then began writing and illustrating his own stories.

Edward Lear Resources

Edward Lear Resources John Cousin tells us that Edward Lear (1812-1888) was an “artist and miscellaneous author [who was born] in London and settled in Rome as a landscape painter. He was an indefatigable...

Jonathan Swift Biography

This Swift biography paints a vivid portrait of the life and works of Jonathan Swift, an early British novelist. Introduction to Literature, Module 1.9.

Mark Twain, as photographed by A.F. Bradley, c. 1907, from the Library of Congress.

Mark Twain Biography (1911)

American author Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens) is best known for his humorous stories, many taking place on or near the great Mississippi River.

Washington Irving Biography

Washington Irving Biography

Washington Irving Biography Irving’s family Boyhood European travels Rising fame Love and poverty Tragedy, memorialized Literature as a profession Home at Sunnyside Minister to Spain Personal appearance and character End of life Sources Other...

Everyone wanted to meet Lord Byron after the publication of his poem "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage," which made him a celebrity.

Lord Byron Biography

Overview of Byron’s life Parents and birth Raised by his mother First love Pigots and poetry Out on his own Criticism and triumph House of Lords Travels across Europe Return to England “Childe Harold”...

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Biography

Family and boyhood Early career and travels A Harvard professor Evangeline Other important works Struck by tragedy Writing until the end Description of the man Longfellow’s poetry His character Sources Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Biography...

John Dryden Biography

John Dryden Biography Family and education Early adult life Prolific playwright Poet Laureate Poetry and politics Religious matters Reversal of fortunes Life overview Sources     Family and education Poet, dramatist, and satirist John...

Charlotte Brontë Biography

The Life of Charlotte Brontë by Elizabeth Gaskell “Hand in hand they used to make their way to the glorious moors, which in after days they loved so passionately.” The Children Who Never Played...

Victor Hugo Biography

Victor Hugo Biography Man is neither master of his life nor of his fate. He can but offer to his fellowmen his efforts to diminish human suffering; he can but offer to God his...

Benjamin Franklin Biography (1911)

Benjamin Franklin Biography Family history and education Writing and printing career Helping his fellow man Fight against the Stamp Act Continental Congress Colonial diplomacy in France Making peace Franklin in person Life philosophy Printing...

James Russell Lowell - American Poet

James Russell Lowell Biography (1911)

Family history and childhood Early work and romance Literature, reform, and family life The Biglow Papers Family tragedies Teaching and traveling The Atlantic Monthly Work abroad End of life Overview of writings and influence...

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, English poet

Elizabeth Barrett Browning Biography (1911)

Family history and upbringing Meeting other poets Health troubles Praise and correspondence Browning’s courtship A secret wedding Published poetry Politics and posterity “God took her” Overview of married life and poetry Sources Family history...

Robert Browning Biography (1911)

Robert Browning Biography Family background Early career & personality First major poems (Paracelsus and Sordello) Dramatic works Expanding poetic repertoire Marriage Browning’s masterpiece: The Ring and the Book Growing fame Later writings Beliefs (religious...

G. K. Chesterton, as photographed by E. H. Mills.

G. K. Chesterton Resources Index

Chesterton, that “Colossal Genius” Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874 – 1936), popularly known as G. K. Chesterton, was a prolific British writer, lay theologian, poet, dramatist, journalist, orator, literary and art critic, biographer, and Christian apologist. His published writings also include...

Virgil biography illustration from a mosaic.

Virgil Biography

The Life of Vergil by Suetonius This public domain text of The Life of Virgil by C. Suetonius Tranquillus was originally published in the Loeb Classical Library in 1914. References to notes in the Loeb...

James Fenimore Cooper: Cambridge History

James Fenimore Cooper Cambridge History of American Literature (1917-1921), Book II, Chapter VI by Carl Van Doren James Fenimore Cooper: Youth, Naval Career Precaution The Spy The Pioneers The Pilot The Last of the...