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Robert Browning: Camberwell, London, England 1889 (Aged 77) Venice, Kingdom of Italy Abbey
Robert Browning: Camberwell, London, England 1889 (Aged 77) Venice, Kingdom of Italy Abbey
Robert Browning: Camberwell, London, England 1889 (Aged 77) Venice, Kingdom of Italy Abbey
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet, and actor, widely
regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's
greatest dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of
Avon".
Born: April 1564, Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom
Died: 23 April 1616, Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom
Spouse: Anne Hathaway (m. 1582–1616)
Education: King Edward VI School
Children: Hamnet Shakespeare, Susanna Hall, Judith Quiney
Alfred Tennyson
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson FRS was a British poet. He was the Poet
Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign and remains one of the most
popular British poets. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold
Medal at Cambridge for one of his first pieces, "Timbuktu". Alfred, Lord
Tennyson was the most renowned poet of the Victorian era. His work includes
'In Memoriam,' 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' and 'Idylls of the King.'
Tennyson's father was a church rector who earned a decent income, but the
size of the family meant expenses had to be closely watched.
Therefore, Tennyson only attended Louth Grammar School (where he was
bullied) for a few years. The rest of his pre-university education was overseen
by his well-read father. Tennyson and his siblings were raised with a love of
books and writing; by the age of 8, Tennyson was penning his first poems.
However, Tennyson's home wasn't a happy one. His father was an elder son
who had been disinherited in favor of a younger brother, which engendered
resentment. Even worse, his father was an alcoholic and drug user who at
times physically threatened members of the family.
It was at university that Tennyson met Arthur Hallam, who became a close
friend, and joined a group of students who called themselves the Apostles.
Tennyson also continued to write poetry, and in 1829, he won the
Chancellor's Gold Medal for the poem "Timbuctoo." In 1830, Tennyson
published his first solo collection: Poems, Chiefly Lyrical.
Tennyson's father died in 1831. His death meant straitened circumstances for
the family, and Tennyson did not complete his degree. As a younger son,
Tennyson was encouraged to find a profession, such as entering the church
like his father. However, the young man was determined to focus on poetry.
Struggles of a Poet
At the end of 1832 (though it was dated 1833), he published another volume
of poetry: Poems by Alfred Tennyson. It contained work that would become
well known, such as "The Lady of Shalott," but received unfavorable reviews.
These greatly affected Tennyson, and he subsequently shied away from
publication for a decade, though he continued to write during that time.
Poetic Success
"The Princess" (1847), a long narrative poem, was Tennyson's next notable
work. But he hit a career high note with "In Memoriam" (1850). The elegiac
creation, which contains the famous lines, "’Tis better to have loved and lost /
Than never to have loved at all," incorporated Tennyson's sorrow about his
friend Arthur Hallam's death. It greatly impressed readers and won Tennyson
many admirers.
Tennyson, who had learned he did not have epilepsy and was feeling more
financially secure, had reconnected with Emily Sellwood (it was she who
suggested the title "In Memoriam"). The two were married in June 1850.
Later that year, Queen Victoria selected Tennyson to succeed William
Wordsworth as England's new poet laureate.
Later Years
In 1874, Tennyson branched out to poetic dramas, starting with Queen
Mary (1875). Some of his dramas would be successfully performed, but they
never matched the impact of his poems.
Tennyson and his wife had had two sons, Hallam (b. 1852) and Lionel (b.
1854). Lionel predeceased his parents; he became ill on a visit to India, and
died in 1886 onboard a ship heading back to England. Tennyson's Demeter
and Other Poems (1889) contained work that addressed this devastating loss.
Tennyson was the leading poet of the Victorian age; as that era ended, his
reputation began to fade. Though he will likely never again be as acclaimed as
he was during his lifetime, today Tennyson is once more recognized as a
gifted poet who delved into eternal human questions, and who offered both
solace and inspiration to his audience.
Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist.
He was born in India, which inspired much of his work. Kipling's works of fiction include
The Jungle Book, Kim, and many short stories, including "The Man Who Would Be
King". Wikipedia
Born: 30 December 1865, Mumbai, India
Died: 18 January 1936, London, United Kingdom
Short stories: Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, The Man Who Would Be King, MORE
Children: John Kipling, Josephine Kipling, Elsie Bambridge
Rudyard Kipling, in full Joseph Rudyard Kipling, (born
December 30, 1865, Bombay [now Mumbai], India—died
January 18, 1936, London, England), English short-story
writer, poet, and novelist chiefly remembered for his
celebration of British imperialism, his tales and poems of
British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. He
received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907.
Life
Kipling’s father, John Lockwood Kipling, was an artist and
scholar who had considerable influence on his son’s work,
became curator of the Lahore Museum, and is described
presiding over this “wonder house” in the first chapter of Kim,
Rudyard’s most famous novel. His mother was Alice
Macdonald, two of whose sisters married the highly successful
19th-century painters Sir Edward Burne-Jones and Sir
Edward Poynter, while a third married Alfred Baldwin and
became the mother of Stanley Baldwin, later prime minister.
These connections were of lifelong importance to Kipling.
Much of his childhood was unhappy. Kipling was taken
to England by his parents at the age of six and was left for five
years at a foster home at Southsea, the horrors of which he
described in the story “Baa Baa, Black Sheep” (1888). He then
went on to the United Services College at Westward Ho, north
Devon, a new, inexpensive, and inferior boarding school. It
haunted Kipling for the rest of his life—but always as the
glorious place celebrated in Stalky & Co. (1899) and related
stories: an unruly paradise in which the highest goals of
English education are met amid a tumult of teasing, bullying,
and beating. The Stalky saga is one of Kipling’s great
imaginative achievements. Readers repelled by a strain of
brutality—even of cruelty—in his writings should remember
the sensitive and shortsighted boy who was brought to terms
with the ethos of this deplorable establishment through the
demands of self-preservation.
Kipling returned to India in 1882 and worked for seven years
as a journalist. His parents, although not officially important,
belonged to the highest Anglo-Indian society, and Rudyard
thus had opportunities for exploring the whole range of that
life. All the while he had remained keenly observant of the
thronging spectacle of native India, which had engaged his
interest and affection from earliest childhood. He was quickly
filling the journals he worked for with prose sketches and light
verse. He published the verse collection Departmental
Ditties in 1886, the short-story collection Plain Tales from the
Hills in 1888, and between 1887 and 1889 he brought out six
paper-covered volumes of short stories. Among the latter
were Soldiers Three, The Phantom Rickshaw (containing the
story “The Man Who Would Be King”), and Wee Willie
Winkie (containing “Baa Baa, Black Sheep”). When Kipling
returned to England in 1889, his reputation had preceded
him, and within a year he was acclaimed as one of the most
brilliant prose writers of his time. His fame was redoubled
upon the publication in 1892 of the verse collection Barrack-
Room Ballads, which contained such popular poems as
“Mandalay,” “Gunga Din,” and “Danny Deever.” Not since the
English poet Lord Byron had such a reputation been achieved
so rapidly. When the poet laureate Alfred, Lord Tennyson,
died in 1892, it may be said that Kipling took his place in
popular estimation. In 1892 Kipling married Caroline
Balestier, the sister of Wolcott Balestier, an American
publisher and writer with whom he had collaborated in The
Naulahka (1892), a facile and unsuccessful romance. That
year the young couple moved to the United States and settled
on Mrs. Kipling’s property in Vermont, but their manners and
attitudes were considered objectionable by their neighbours.
Unable or unwilling to adjust to life in America, the Kiplings
returned to England in 1896. Ever after Kipling remained very
aware that Americans were “foreigners,” and he extended to
them, as to the French, no more than a semi-exemption from
his proposition that only “lesser breeds” are born beyond
the English Channel.
Besides numerous short-story collections
and poetry collections such as The Seven Seas (1896), Kipling
published his best-known novels in the 1890s and
immediately thereafter. His novel The Light That
Failed (1890) is the story of a painter going blind and spurned
by the woman he loves. Captains Courageous (1897), in spite
of its sense of adventure, is burdened by excessive descriptive
writing. Kim (1901), about an Irish orphan in India, is a
classic. The Jungle Book (1894) and The Second Jungle
Book (1895) are stylistically superb collections of stories.
These books give further proof that Kipling excelled at telling
a story but was inconsistent in producing
balanced, cohesive novels.
In 1902 Kipling bought a house at Burwash, Sussex, which
remained his home until his death. Sussex was the
background of much of his later writing—especially in Puck of
Pook’s Hill (1906) and Rewards and Fairies (1910), two
volumes that, although devoted to simple dramatic
presentations of English history, embodied some of his
deepest intuitions. In 1907 he received the Nobel Prize for
Literature, the first Englishman to be so honoured. In South
Africa, where he spent much time, he was given a house
by Cecil Rhodes, the diamond magnate and South African
statesman. This association fostered Kipling’s imperialist
persuasions, which were to grow stronger with the years.
These convictions are not to be dismissed in a word: they were
bound up with a genuine sense of a civilizing mission that
required every Englishman, or, more broadly, every white
man, to bring European culture to those he considered the
heathen natives of the uncivilized world. Kipling’s ideas were
not in accord with much that was liberal in the thought of the
age, and, as he became older, he was an increasingly isolated
figure. When he died, two days before King George V, he must
have seemed to many a far less representative Englishman
than his sovereign.
Legacy of Rudyard Kipling
Occupation Poet
dramatist
essayist
novelist
Nationality English
Literary Romanticism
movement
(m. 1811; died 1816)
Mary Shelley
(m. 1816)
Signature
Description
Description
Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban, Kt PC QC, also known as Lord Verulam, was an
English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and as Lord
Chancellor of England. His works are seen as developing the scientific method and
remained influential through the scientific revolution. Wikipedia
Quotes
Knowledge is power
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and
digested.
Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.
In 1623, Bacon expressed his aspirations and ideals in New Atlantis. Released in 1627,
this was his creation of an ideal land where "generosity and enlightenment, dignity and
splendor, piety and public spirit" were the commonly held qualities of the inhabitants of
Bensalem. The name "Bensalem" means "Son of Peace", [b] having obvious resemblance
with "Bethlehem" (birthplace of Jesus), and is referred to as "God's bosom, a land
unknown", in the last page of the work.
In this utopian work, written in literary form, a group of Europeans travels west from Peru
by boat. After having suffered with strong winds at sea and fearing for death, they "did lift
up their hearts and voices to God above, beseeching him of his mercy".[25] After that
incident, these travellers in a distant water finally reached the island of Bensalem, where
they found a fair and well-governed city, and were received kindly and with all humanity
by Christian and cultured people, who had been converted centuries before by a miracle
wrought by Saint Bartholomew, twenty years after the Ascension of Jesus, by which the
scriptures had reached them in a mysterious ark of cedar floating on the sea, guarded by
a gigantic pillar of light, in the form of a column, over which was a bright cross of light.
Many aspects of the society and history of the island are described, such as the
Christian religion; a cultural feast in honour of the family institution, called "the Feast of
the Family"; a college of sages, the Salomon's House, "the very eye of the kingdom", to
which order "God of heaven and earth had vouchsafed the grace to know the works of
Creation, and the secrets of them", as well as "to discern between divine miracles, works
of nature, works of art, and impostures and illusions of all sorts"; and a series of
instruments, process and methods of scientific research that were employed in the
island by the Salomon's House.[25] The work also goes on interpreting the ancient fable
of Atlantis, considering the lost island as actually being the American continent, which
would have had much greater civilizations in the distant past than the ones at present
suggest, but whose greatness and achievements were destroyed and covered by a
terrible flood, the present American Indians being just descendants of the more primitive
people of the ancient civilization of Atlantis who had survived the flood because they
lived apart from the civilization, in the mountains and high altitudes.
The inhabitants of Bensalem are described as having a high moral character and
honesty, no official accepting any payment for their services from the visitors, and the
people being described as chaste and pious, as said by an inhabitant of the island:
But hear me now, and I will tell you what I know. You shall understand that there is not
under the heavens so chaste a nation as this of Bensalem; nor so free from all pollution
or foulness. It is the virgin of the world. I remember I have read in one of your European
books, of a holy hermit amongst you that desired to see the Spirit of Fornication; and
there appeared to him a little foul ugly Aethiop. But if he had desired to see the Spirit of
Chastity of Bensalem, it would have appeared to him in the likeness of a fair beautiful
Cherubim. For there is nothing amongst mortal men more fair and admirable than the
chaste minds of this people. Know, therefore, that with them there are no stews, no
dissolute houses, no courtesans, nor anything of that kind. [...] And their usual saying is,
that whosoever is unchaste cannot reverence himself; and they say, that the reverence
of a man's self, is, next to religion, the chiefest bridle of all vices.[25]
In the last third of the book, the Head of the Salomon's House takes one of the European
visitors to show him all the scientific background of Salomon's House, where
experiments are conducted in Baconian method to understand and conquer nature and
to apply the collected knowledge to the betterment of society. Namely: 1) the end of their
foundation; 2) the preparations they have for their works; 3) the several employments
and function whereto their fellows are assigned; 4) and the ordinances and rites which
they observe.
In the society of Bensalem, Bacon anticipates the modern day research university. [26]
Here he portrayed a vision of the future of human discovery and knowledge and a
practical demonstration of his method. The plan and organization of his ideal college,
"Salomon's House", envisioned the modern research university in both applied and pure
science.
The end of their foundation is thus described: "The end of our foundation is the
knowledge of causes, and secret motions of things; and the enlarging of the bounds of
human empire, to the effecting of all things possible". [25]
In describing the ordinances and rites observed by the scientists of Salomon's House, its
Head said: "We have certain hymns and services, which we say daily, of Lord and
thanks to God for His marvelous works; and some forms of prayer, imploring His aid and
blessing for the illumination of our labors, and the turning of them into good and holy
uses".[25] (See Bacon's "Student's Prayer" and Bacon's "Writer's Prayer")
There has been much speculation as to whether a real island society inspired Bacon's
utopia. Scholars have suggested numerous countries, from Iceland to Japan; Dr. Nick
Lambert highlighted the latter in The View Beyond.[27][page needed]
A city named "Bensalem" was actually founded in Pennsylvania, in 1682.
Despite being posthumously published in 1626, New Atlantis has an important place in
Bacon's corpus. While his scientific treatises, such as The Advancement and Novum,
are prescriptive in tone, advising how European thought must change through the
adoption of the new scientific mindset, New Atlantis offers a look at what Bacon
envisions as the ultimate fruition of his instauration. This text pictures Bacon's dream of
a society organized around his epistemological and social agenda. In many ways
Bacon's utopian text is a cumulative work: the predominant themes Bacon consistently
returns to throughout his intellectual life—the dominance over Nature through
experimentalism, the notion of a charitable form of knowledge, and the complementary
relationship between religion and science—are very much foregrounded in New Atlantis,
becoming the pillars of Bensalemite culture. [28]
Essays[edit]
Meditationes Sacrae[edit]
A collection of religious meditations by Lord Bacon, published in 1597.
Among the texts of his Sacred Meditations are:[42]
Of The Works of God and Man
Of The Miracles of our Saviour
Of The Innocence of the Dove, and the Wisdom of the Serpent
Of The Exaltation of Charity
Of The Moderation of Cares
Of Earthly Hope
Of Hypocrites
Of Impostors
Of Several kinds of imposture
Of Atheism
Of Heresies
Of The Church and the Scriptures
Theological Tracts[edit]
Collection of Lord Bacon's prayers, published after his death.
Among the prayers of his Theological Tracts are:[43]
A Prayer, or Psalm, made by the Lord Bacon, Chancellor of England
A Prayer made and used by the Lord Chancellor Bacon
The Student's Prayer
The Writer's Prayer
A Confession of Faith
An Advertisement Touching a Holy War[edit]
This treatise, that is among those which were published after Bacon's death and were
left unfinished, is written in the form of debate. In it, there are six characters, each
representing a sector of society: Eusebius, Gamaliel, Zebedeus, Martius, Eupolis, and
Pollio, representing respectively: a moderate divine, a Protestant zealot, a Roman
Catholic zealot, a military man, a politician, and a courtier.
In the work, the six characters debate on whether it is lawful or not for Christendom to
engage in a "Holy War" against infidels, such as the Turks, for the purpose of an
expansion of the Christian religion – many different arguments and viewpoints being
expressed by the characters. The work is left unfinished, it doesn't come to a conclusive
answer to the question in a debate.
Peter Linebaugh and Marcus Rediker have argued, based on this treatise, that Bacon
was not as idealistic as his utopian works suggest, rather that he was what might today
be considered an advocate of genocidal eugenics. They see in it a defense of the
elimination of detrimental societal elements by the English and compared this to the
endeavors of Hercules while establishing a civilized society in ancient Greece. [44] The
work itself, however, being a dialogue, expresses both militarists' and pacifists'
discourses debating each other, and doesn't come to any conclusion since it was left
unfinished.
Laurence Lampert has interpreted Bacon's treatise An Advertisement Touching a Holy
War as advocating "spiritual warfare against the spiritual rulers of European
civilization."[45] This interpretation might be considered symbolical, for there is no hint of
such an advocacy in the work itself.[citation needed]
The work was dedicated to Lancelot Andrews, Bishop of Winchester and counselor of
the estate to King James.
Bacon's personal views on war and peace [edit]
While Bacon's personal views on war and peace might be dubious in some writings, he
thus expressed it in a letter of advice to Sir George Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham:
For peace and war, and those things which appertain to either; I in my own disposition
and profession am wholly for peace, if please God to bless his kingdom therewith, as for
many years past he hath done [...] God is the God of peace; it is one of his attributes,
therefore by him alone must we pray, and hope to continue it: there is the foundation. [...]
(Concerning the establishment of colonies in the 'New World') To make no extirpation of
the natives under the pretense of planting religion: God surely will no way be pleased
with such sacrifices.[46]
Translation of Certain Psalms into English verse[edit]
Published in 1625 and considered to be the last of his writings, Bacon translated 7 of
the Psalms of David (numbers 1, 12, 90, 104, 126, 137, 149) to English in verse form, in
which he shows his poetical skills.
William Blake
English poet
Description
Description
William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during
his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual
art of the Romantic Age. Wikipedia
Periods: Symbolism, Romanticism
William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and
printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal
figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. What he called
his prophetic works were said by 20th-century critic Northrop Frye to form "what is in
proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language". [2] His visual
artistry led 21st-century critic Jonathan Jones to proclaim him "far and away the greatest
artist Britain has ever produced".[3] In 2002, Blake was placed at number 38 in the BBC's
poll of the 100 Greatest Britons.[4] While he lived in London his entire life, except for three
years spent in Felpham,[5] he produced a diverse and symbolically rich œuvre, which
embraced the imagination as "the body of God"[6] or "human existence itself".[7]
Although Blake was considered mad by contemporaries for his idiosyncratic views, he is
held in high regard by later critics for his expressiveness and creativity, and for the
philosophical and mystical undercurrents within his work. His paintings and poetry have
been characterised as part of the Romantic movement and as "Pre-Romantic". [8] A
committed Christian who was hostile to the Church of England (indeed, to almost all
forms of organised religion), Blake was influenced by the ideals and ambitions of
the French and American revolutions.[9][10] Though later he rejected many of these political
beliefs, he maintained an amiable relationship with the political activist Thomas Paine;
he was also influenced by thinkers such as Emanuel Swedenborg.[11] Despite these
known influences, the singularity of Blake's work makes him difficult to classify. The
19th-century scholar William Michael Rossetti characterised him as a "glorious
luminary",[12] and "a man not forestalled by predecessors, nor to be classed with
contemporaries, nor to be replaced by known or readily surmisable successors". [13]
Early Years
Longfellow was born on February 27, 1807, in Portland, Maine, to an
established New England family. His father, a prominent lawyer,
expected his son would follow in his profession. Young Henry
attended Portland Academy, a private school and then Bowdoin
College, in Maine. Among his fellow students was the
writer, Nathaniel Hawthorne. Longfellow was an excellent student,
showing proficiency in foreign languages. Upon graduation, in 1825,
he was offered a position to teach modern languages at Bowdoin,
but on the condition that he first travel to Europe, at his own
expense, to research the languages. There he developed a lifelong
love of the Old World civilizations.
Prolific Writer
Longfellow would produce some of his best work such as Voices of
the Night, a collection of poems including Hymn to the Night and A
Psalm of Life, which gained him immediate popularity. Other
publications followed such as Ballads and Other Poems, containing
“The Wreck of the Hesperus” and the “Village Blacksmith.” During
this time, Longfellow also taught full time at Harvard and directed the
Modern Languages Department. Due to budget cuts, he covered
many of the teaching positions himself.
Personal Life
Longfellow married Mary Storer Potter, also from a distinguished
family. Before he began at Harvard, they traveled to northern
Europe. While in Germany, Mary died following a miscarriage, in
1836. Devastated, Longfellow returned to the United States seeking
solace. He turned to his writing, channeling his personal experiences
into his work. He soon published the romance novel Hyperion, where
he unabashedly told of his unrequited love for Frances Appleton,
whom he had met in Europe soon after his first wife died. After seven
years, they married in 1843 and would go on to have six children.
(m. 1836; died 1847)
Signature
Poe's Works
“The Raven”
“The Cask of Amontillado”
“The Masque of the Red Death”
“The Tell-Tale Heart”
“The Murders in the Rue Morgue”
“The Fall of the House of Usher”
"Metzengerstein"
"The Gold Bug"
Edgar Allan Poe (/poʊ/; born Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849)
was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his
poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is
widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States and of
American literature as a whole, and he was one of the country's earliest
practitioners of the short story. He is also generally considered the inventor of
the detective fiction genre and is further credited with contributing to the
emerging genre of science fiction.[1] Poe was the first well-known American writer
to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and
career.[2]
Poe was born in Boston, the second child of actors David and Elizabeth "Eliza"
Poe.[3] His father abandoned the family in 1810, and his mother died the following
year. Thus orphaned, Poe was taken in by John and Frances Allan of Richmond,
Virginia. They never formally adopted him, but he was with them well into young
adulthood. Tension developed later as Poe and John Allan repeatedly clashed
over Poe's debts, including those incurred by gambling, and the cost of Poe's
education. Poe attended the University of Virginia but left after a year due to lack
of money. He quarreled with Allan over the funds for his education and enlisted
in the United States Army in 1827 under an assumed name. It was at this time
that his publishing career began with the anonymous collection Tamerlane and
Other Poems (1827), credited only to "a Bostonian". Poe and Allan reached a
temporary rapprochement after the death of Allan's wife in 1829. Poe later failed
as an officer cadet at West Point, declaring a firm wish to be a poet and writer,
and he ultimately parted ways with Allan.
Poe switched his focus to prose and spent the next several years working
for literary journals and periodicals, becoming known for his own style of literary
criticism. His work forced him to move among several cities, including Baltimore,
Philadelphia, and New York City. He married his 13-year-old cousin, Virginia
Clemm, in 1836, but Virginia died of tuberculosis in 1847. In January 1845, Poe
published his poem "The Raven" to instant success. He planned for years to
produce his own journal The Penn (later renamed The Stylus), but before it could
be produced, he died in Baltimore on October 7, 1849, at age 40. The cause of
his death is unknown and has been variously attributed to disease, alcoholism,
substance abuse, suicide, and other causes.[4]
Poe and his works influenced literature around the world, as well as specialized
fields such as cosmology and cryptography. He and his work appear throughout
popular culture in literature, music, films, and television. A number of his homes
are dedicated museums today. The Mystery Writers of America present an
annual award known as the Edgar Award for distinguished work in the mystery
genre.
Emily Dickinson
childhood[1]
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American
poet. Little-known during her life, she has since been regarded as one of the most
important figures in American poetry.[2]
Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts into a prominent family with strong ties
to its community. After studying at the Amherst Academy for seven years in her youth,
she briefly attended the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary before returning to her family's
house in Amherst.
Evidence suggests that Dickinson lived much of her life in isolation. Considered
an eccentric by locals, she developed a penchant for white clothing and was known for
her reluctance to greet guests or, later in life, to even leave her bedroom. Dickinson
never married, and most friendships between her and others depended entirely upon
correspondence.[3]
While Dickinson was a prolific writer, her only publications during her lifetime were 10 of
her nearly 1,800 poems, and one letter. [4] The poems published then were usually edited
significantly to fit conventional poetic rules. Her poems were unique for her era. They
contain short lines, typically lack titles, and often use slant rhyme as well as
unconventional capitalization and punctuation.[5] Many of her poems deal with themes of
death and immortality, two recurring topics in letters to her friends, and also explore
aesthetics, society, nature and spirituality.[6]
Although Dickinson's acquaintances were most likely aware of her writing, it was not until
after her death in 1886—when Lavinia, Dickinson's younger sister, discovered her cache
of poems—that her work became public. Her first collection of poetry was published in
1890 by personal acquaintances Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Loomis
Todd, though both heavily edited the content. A 1998 article in The New York
Times revealed that of the many edits made to Dickinson's work, the name "Susan" was
often deliberately removed. At least eleven of Dickinson's poems were dedicated to
sister-in-law Susan Huntington Gilbert Dickinson, though all the dedications were
obliterated, presumably by Todd. [7] A complete, and mostly unaltered, collection of her
poetry became available for the first time when scholar Thomas H. Johnson
published The Poems of Emily Dickinson in 1955.
QUICK FACTS
NAME
Mark Twain
BIRTH DATE
DEATH DATE
PLACE OF BIRTH
Florida, Missouri
PLACE OF DEATH
Redding, Connecticut
Mark Twain, the writer, adventurer and wily social critic born
Samuel Clemens, wrote the novels 'Adventures of Tom
Sawyer' and 'Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.’
Who Was Mark Twain?
Mark Twain, whose real name was Samuel Clemens, was the celebrated author of
several novels, including two major classics of American literature: The Adventures
of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He was also a riverboat pilot,
journalist, lecturer, entrepreneur and inventor.
Early Life
Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in the tiny village of Florida,
Missouri, on November 30, 1835, the sixth child of John and Jane Clemens. When he
was 4 years old, his family moved to nearby Hannibal, a bustling river town of 1,000
people.
John Clemens worked as a storekeeper, lawyer, judge and land speculator, dreaming
of wealth but never achieving it, sometimes finding it hard to feed his family. He was
an unsmiling fellow; according to one legend, young Sam never saw his father
laugh.
QUICK FACTS
NAME
Robert Frost
BIRTH DATE
DEATH DATE
EDUCATION
PLACE OF BIRTH
PLACE OF DEATH
Boston, Massachusetts
Frost spent his first 40 years as an unknown. He exploded on the scene after returning
from England at the beginning of World War I. He died of complications from
prostate surgery on January 29, 1963.
Early Years
Frost was born on March 26, 1874, in San Francisco, California. He spent the first 11
years of his life there, until his journalist father, William Prescott Frost Jr., died of
tuberculosis.
Following his father's passing, Frost moved with his mother and sister, Jeanie, to the
town of Lawrence, Massachusetts. They moved in with his grandparents, and Frost
attended Lawrence High School.
After high school, Frost attended Dartmouth College for several
months, returning home to work a slew of unfulfilling jobs.
In 1900, Frost moved with his wife and children to a farm in New
Hampshire — property that Frost's grandfather had purchased for
them—and they attempted to make a life on it for the next 12 years.
Though it was a fruitful time for Frost's writing, it was a difficult period
in his personal life, as two of his young children died.
Wife
Frost met his future love and wife, Elinor White, when they were both
attending Lawrence High School. She was his co-valedictorian when
they graduated in 1892.
Children
Frost and White had six children together. Their first child, Elliot, was
born in 1896. Daughter Lesley was born in 1899.
Elliot died of cholera in 1900. After his death, Elinor gave birth to four
more children: son Carol (1902), who would commit suicide in 1940;
Irma (1903), who later developed mental illness; Marjorie (1905),
who died in her late 20s after giving birth; and Elinor (1907), who
died just weeks after she was born.
Early Poetry
In 1894, Frost had his first poem, "My Butterfly: an Elegy," published
in The Independent, a weekly literary journal based in New York
City.
In 1912, Frost and Elinor decided to sell the farm in New Hampshire
and move the family to England, where they hoped there would be
more publishers willing to take a chance on new poets.
Within just a few months, Frost, now 38, found a publisher who
would print his first book of poems, A Boy’s Will, followed by North of
Boston a year later.
In 1915, Frost and Elinor settled down on a farm that they purchased
in Franconia, New Hampshire. There, Frost began a long career as a
teacher at several colleges, reciting poetry to eager crowds and
writing all the while.
Famous Poems
Some of Frost’s most well-known poems include:
Thomas Stearns Eliot was born in St. Louis in 1888 to a family with
prominent New England heritage. Eliot largely abandoned his
midwestern roots and chose to ally himself with both New and Old
England throughout his life. He attended Harvard as an
undergraduate in 1906, where he was accepted into its literary
circles, and had a predilection for 16th- and 17th-century poetry, the
Italian Renaissance (particularly Dante), Eastern religion, and
philosophy. Perhaps the greatest influences on him, however, were
19th-century French Symbolists such as Charles Baudelaire, Arthur
Rimbaud, Stéphane Mallarmé, and especially Jules Laforgue. Eliot
took from them a sensual yet precise attention to symbolic images, a
feature that would be the hallmark of his brand of Modernism.
Eliot also earned a master's degree from Harvard in 1910 before
studying in Paris and Germany. He settled in England in 1914 at the
outbreak of World War I, studying at Oxford, teaching, and working
at a bank. In 1915 he married British writer Vivienne Haigh-Wood
(they would divorce in 1933), a woman prone to poor physical and
mental health; in November of 1921, Eliot had a nervous
breakdown.
By 1917 Eliot had already achieved great success with his first book
of poems, Prufrock and Other Observations, which included "The
Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," a work begun in his days at
Harvard. Eliot's reputation was bolstered by the admiration and aid
of esteemed contemporary poet Ezra Pound, the other towering
figure of modernist poetry. During Eliot's recuperation from his
breakdown in a Swiss sanitarium, he wrote The Waste Land,
arguably the most influential English-language poem ever written.
Eliot founded the quarterly journal Criterion in 1922, editing it until
its end in 1939. He was now the voice of modernism, and in London
he expanded the breadth of his writing. In addition to writing poetry
and editing it for various publications, he wrote philosophical
reviews and a number of critical essays. Many of these, such as
"Tradition and the Individual Talent," have become classics, smartly
and affectionately dissecting other poets while subtly informing the
reader about Eliot's own work. Eliot declared his preference for
poetry that does away with the poet's own personality and uses the
"objective correlative" of symbolic, meaningful, and often chaotic
concrete imagery.
Eliot joined the Church of England in 1927 and his subsequent work
reflects his Anglican attitudes. The six-part poem "Ash Wednesday"
(1930) and other religious works in the early part of the 1930s,
while notable in their own right, retrospectively feel like a warm-up
for his epic Four Quartets (completed and published together in
1943). Eliot used his wit, philosophical preoccupation with time,
and vocal range to examine further religious issues.
Eliot wrote his first play, Murder in the Cathedral, in 1935. A verse
drama about the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket, the play's
religious themes were forerunners of Eliot's four other major
plays, The Family Reunion (1939), The Cocktail Party (1949), The
Confidential Clerk (1953), and The Elder Statesman (1959). With
these religious verse dramas cloaked in secular conversational
comedy, Eliot belied whatever pretensions his detractors may have
found in his Anglophilia. He wrote Old Possum's Book of Practical
Cats in 1939, a book of verse for children that was eventually
adapted into the Broadway musical Cats.
As one might predict based on the tone of his poetry, Eliot was
unhappy for most of his life, but his second marriage in 1957 proved
fruitful. When he died in 1965, he was the recipient of a Nobel Prize
(1948), the author of the century's most influential poem, and
arguably the century's most important poet. Perhaps due to the large
shadow he casts, relatively few poets have tried to ape his style;
others simply find him cold. Still, no one can escape the authority of
Eliot's modernism; it is as relevant today as it was in 1922. While
Eliot may not have as much influence on poets today as do some of
his contemporaries, the magnitude of his impact on poetry is
unrivaled.