Official Blog of Author Michael Thomas Barry

Arrest warrant is issued for playwright Christopher Marlowe - 1593

2013-05-18T09:19:00.001-07:00

On May 18, 1593, an arrest warrant was issued for playwright Christopher Marlowe, after fellow writer Thomas Kyd accused him of heresy. Fellow playwright Thomas Kyd, who wrote Spanish Tragedie (also called Hieronomo) was influential in the development of the revenge tragedy. Kyd had been arrested on May 15, 1593, and tortured on suspicion of treason. Told that heretical documents had been found in his room, Kyd wrote a letter saying that the documents belonged to Christopher Marlowe, with whom he had shared rooms previously. An arrest warrant was issued, and Marlowe was arrested on May 20th. Marlowe was bailed out of jail but was killed in a bar brawl May 30th. Though little is known about Kyd's childhood, scholars believe he was educated at the Merchant Taylor's School in London and raised to be a scrivener, a professional trained to draw up contracts and other business documents. Of his early work, the Spanish Tragedie (1592) brought him the most recognition. Some scholars believe it served as a model for Shakespeare's Hamlet. Kyd died penniless on August 15, 1594.

Michael Thomas Barry is the author of Great Britain’s Literary Legends. The book can be purchased from Amazon through the following links:

Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1368893425&sr=8-2&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

Amazon UK - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1368893461&sr=8-6&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

English novelist Dorothy Richardson was born - 1873

2013-05-17T08:26:00.000-07:00

On May 17, 1873, English writer Dorothy Richardson was born in Abingdon, England. Her stream-of-consciousness style will influence James Joyce and Virginia Woolf. Richardson, though seldom read today, was widely read and discussed in her own time. The daughter of a grocer who went bankrupt when she was 17, Richardson was well-educated and highly independent. After her father's economic catastrophe, she took a job as a teacher in Germany for six months, then taught in London and worked as a governess for two years. In the late 1890s, Richardson devoted herself to caring for her severely depressed mother, who killed herself in November 1895 while Richardson was out taking a walk. After which, she moved to the Bloomsbury district in London, determined to support herself. She took a job as a dental assistant and earned extra money by writing essays and reviews. Unusually liberated for the time period, Richardson made friends with other young women who worked in offices. She attended public events and lived sparsely so she could afford concert tickets.

Richardson met writer H.G. Wells, the husband of an old school friend, in the early 1900s. She had an affair with Wells and in 1906 found herself pregnant with his child. She broke off with him, hoping to raise the child herself, but miscarried. She then moved to Sussex, where she wrote a monthly column for The Dental Record and sketches for The Saturday Review while working on the first volume of her stream-of-consciousness novel, Pilgrimage. The novel, which eventually stretched to 12 volumes, traced the development of a young woman whose life paralleled Richardson's. The first volume of the novel, called Pointed Roofs, was published in 1915, followed by two more volumes in 1916 and 1917. Richardson married an artist, 15 years her junior in 1917 and supported him with her writing. A review of her first three volumes published in 1918 first used the literary term "stream of consciousness" to describe her groundbreaking style. Many important 20th century writers adapted her techniques. Richardson died on June 17, 1957 at a nursing home in Beckenham, Kent, England at the age of 84.

Michael Thomas Barry is the author of Great Britain’s Literary Legends. The book can be purchased from Amazon through the following links:

Amazon – http://www.amazon.com/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1368803796&sr=8-2&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

Amazon UK - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1368803843&sr=8-6&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

Novelist Mary Anne Evans (George Eliot) married John Cross - 1880

2013-05-16T12:56:00.000-07:00

On May 16, 1880 English novelist Mary Anne Evans, better known by her pen name George Eliot married John Cross. She was one of the leading writers of the Victorian era and authored seven novels, including Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silas Marner (1861), Middlemarch (1871–72), and Daniel Deronda (1876), most of them set in provincial England and known for their realism and psychological insight. She used a male pen name, she said, to ensure her works would be taken seriously. Female authors were published under their own names during Eliot's life, but she wanted to escape the stereotype of women only writing lighthearted romances. An additional factor in her use of a pen name may have been a desire to shield her private life from public scrutiny and to prevent scandals attending to her unconventional relationship with George Henry Lewes, with whom she lived for over 20 years until his death in 1878.

On May 16, 1880 Eliot courted controversy once more by marrying a man twenty years younger than herself, and again changing her name, this time to Mary Anne Cross. The couple moved to a new house in Chelsea but Eliot fell ill with a throat infection. This, coupled with the kidney disease she had been afflicted with for the previous few years, led to her death on December 22, 1880 at the age of 61. Eliot was not buried at Westminster Abbey because of her denial of the Christian faith and her "irregular" though monogamous life with Lewes. She was interred in Highgate Cemetery (East), London in the area reserved for religious dissenters or agnostics, next to George Lewes. In 1980, on the centenary of her death, a memorial stone was established for her in Poets’ Corner at Westminster Abbey.

Michael Thomas Barry is the author of Great Britain’s Literary Legends. The book can be purchased from Amazon through the following links:

Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1368733794&sr=8-2&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

Amazon UK - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1368733826&sr=8-6&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

Great Britain's Royal Tombs book is honored

2013-05-15T09:05:00.000-07:00

This just announced (May 14, 2013) - Great Britain's Royal Tombs: A Guide to the Lives & Burial Places of British Monarchs has been named a finalist in Historical Non-Fiction and Coffee Table Book categories of the 2013 Next Generation Indie Book Awards. www.indiebookawards.com

Alfred Lord Tennyson published "Poems" - 1842

2013-05-14T08:35:00.001-07:00

On May 14, 1842, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, published Poems. While the 32-year-old poet had already published several other books of verse, Poems, which included works like "Ulysses" and "Morte D'Arthur," was considered his best work to date. The book confirmed his growing stature as a poet after more than a decade of writing. Tennyson was born into a chaotic and disrupted home. His father, the eldest son of a wealthy landowner, was disinherited in favor of his younger brother. Forced to enter the Church to support himself, the Rev. Dr. George Tennyson became a bitter alcoholic. However, he educated his sons in the classics, and Alfred Tennyson, the fourth of 12 children, went to Trinity College at Cambridge in 1827. The same year, he and his brother Charles published Poems by Two Brothers. At Cambridge, Tennyson befriended a circle of intellectual undergraduates who strongly encouraged his poetry. Chief among them was Arthur Hallam, who became Tennyson's closest friend and who later proposed to Tennyson's sister.

In 1830, Tennyson published Poems, Chiefly Lyrical. The following year, his father died, and he was forced to leave Cambridge for financial reasons. Besieged by critical attacks and struggling with poverty, Tennyson remained dedicated to his work and published several more volumes. The sudden death of Tennyson's dear friend Arthur Hallam in 1833 inspired several important works throughout Tennyson's later life, including the masterful In Memoriam of 1842. The publication of Poems in 1842 boosted Tennyson's reputation, and in 1850 Queen Victoria named him Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom. At long last, Tennyson achieved financial stability and finally married his fiancée Emily Sellwood, whom he had loved since 1836. Tennyson's massive frame and booming voice, together with his taste for solitude, made him an imposing character. He craved solitude and bought an isolated home where he could write in peace. In 1859, he published the first four books of his epic Idylls of the King. Eight more volumes would follow. He continued writing and publishing poems until his death in 1892.

Michael Thomas Barry is the author of Great Britain’s Literary Legends. The book can be purchased from Amazon through the following links:

Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1368545026&sr=8-2&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

Amazon UK - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368545058&sr=8-1&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

English poet and novelist John Masefield died - 1967

2013-05-12T08:55:00.000-07:00

After spending a wonderful week in Ireland celebrating my birthday unplugged from all things electronic, visiting all the sites and hoisting a Guinness or two. I have returned home with a renewed vigor and inspiration for my craft.

English poet and author John Masefield died on May 12, 1967 in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, England. He was the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1930 until his death. He is remembered as the author of the classic children's novels The Midnight Folk and The Box of Delights, and poems, such as "The Everlasting Mercy" and "Sea-Fever.” Masefield was born on June 1, 1878 in Ledbury, Herefordshire, England. After graduating from the King’s School in Warwick, Masefield spent several years aboard the HMS Conway, both to train for a life at sea, and to break his addiction to reading, of which his aunt thought little. It was aboard the Conway that Masefield's love for story-telling grew. While on the ship, he listened to the stories told about sea lore. He continued to read, and felt that he was to become a writer and story teller himself. Eventually, the urge to become a writer and the hopelessness of life as a sailor overtook him, and in New York, he deserted ship. He lived as a vagrant for several months and worked odd jobs. In 1897, he returned home to England and met his future wife, Constance Crommelin, who was educated in classics and English literature, and was a mathematics teacher. They would have two children.

By the time he was 24, Masefield's poems were being published in periodicals and his first collected works, Salt-Water Ballads (1902) was published, the poem "Sea-Fever" appearing in this book. Masefield then wrote the novels, Captain Margaret (1908) and Multitude and Solitude (1909). In 1911, after a long drought of poem writing, he composed "The Everlasting Mercy", the first of his narrative poems, and within the next year, Masefield had produced two more, "The Widow in the Bye Street" and "Dauber.” As a result, Masefield became widely known to the public and was praised by critics.

When World War I began, though old enough to be exempted from military service, Masefield joined the staff of a British hospital for French soldiers, serving briefly in 1915 as a hospital orderly, and later publishing his own account of his experiences. After returning home, Masefield was invited to the United States on a three month lecture tour. Although Masefield's primary purpose was to lecture on English Literature, a secondary purpose was to collect information on the mood and views of Americans regarding the war in Europe. When he returned to England, he submitted a report to the British Foreign Office, and suggested that he be allowed to write a book about the failure of the allied efforts in the Dardanelles, which possibly could be used in the U.S. in order to counter what he thought was German propaganda there. As a result, Masefield wrote Gallipopli. This work was a success, encouraging the British people, and lifting them somewhat from the disappointment they had felt as a result of the Allied losses in the Dardanelles. Due to the success of his wartime writings, Masefield was asked to write an account of the Battle of the Somme. Although he had grand ideas for his book, he was denied access to the official records, and therefore, what was to be his preface to the book was published as The Old Front Line, a description of the geography of the Somme area.

Masefield entered the 1920s as an accomplished and respected writer. His family was able to settle on Boar's Hill, a somewhat rural setting not far from Oxford. He continued to meet with success, the 1923 edition of "Collected Poems" selling approximately 80,000 copies. He produced three poems early in this decade. The first was Reynard the Fox, a poem that has been critically compared with works of Geoffrey Chaucer. This was followed by Right Royal and King Cole.

After which, he turned away from the long poem and back to the novel, and from 1924until World War II published twelve novels, which vary from stories of the sea (The Bird of Dawning, Victorious Troy) to social novels about modern England (The Hawbucks, The Square Peg), and from tales of an imaginary land in Central America (Sard Harker, Odtaa) to fantasies for children (The Midnight Folk, The Box of Delights). This variety in genre testifies most impressively to the breadth of his imagination.

In 1930, on the death of Robert Bridges, Masefield was appointed Poet Laureate. After his appointment, Masefield was awarded the Order of Merit by King George V and many honorary degrees from British universities. It was not until about the age of 70 that Masefield slowed his pace due to illness. In 1960, Constance died at 93, after a long illness. Although her death was heartrending, he had spent a tiring year watching the woman he loved die. He continued his duties as Poet Laureate; In Glad Thanksgiving, his last book, was published when he was 88 years old. In late 1966, Masefield developed gangrene in his ankle. This spread to his leg, and he died of the infection on May 12, 1967. According to his wishes, he was cremated and his ashes were placed in Poets’ Corner at Westminster Abbey.

Michael Thomas Barry is the author of Great Britain’s Literary Legends. The book can be purchased from Amazon through the following links:

Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1368373440&sr=8-2&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

Amazon UK - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1368373478&sr=8-6&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

Novelist & playwright Dodie Smith was born - 1896

2013-05-03T06:12:00.000-07:00

This will be the last blog for about a week as I will be taking a much needed break from blogging and vacationing in Ireland. Blog will be back on May 12, 2013.

English novelist and playwright Dorothy "Dodie" Smith was born on May 3, 1896 in Whitefield, Lancashire, England. She is best known for her novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians (1956). In 1914, Dodie entered the Academy of Dramatic Arts in London and her first acting role came in Arthur Wing Pinero’s Playgoers. She also performed in the Portsmouth Repertory Theatre, traveled with a YMCA company to entertain the troops in France during World War I. During her mother's decline while dying of breast cancer, Dodie began to follow the teachings of Christian Science.

Even though she had sold a film script, Schoolgirl Rebels under the pseudonym Charles Henry Percy, and written a one-act play, British Talent, that premiered at the Three Arts Club in 1924, she still had a hard time finding steady work as a writer. In 1931, she authored her first full play, Autumn Crocus, under the pseudonym C.L. Anthony. Its success, and the discovery of her identity by journalists, inspired the newspaper headline, "Shop girl Writes Play. Her fourth play, Call It A Day (1936) ran in London for 509 performances, the longest run of any of Smith's plays to date. During the 1940s, Smith moved to the United States due to legal difficulties. She felt homesick for England, which inspired her first novel I Capture the Castle (1948) and this was followed by One Hundred and One Dalmatians in 1956. Smith died on November 24, 1990 in Uttlesford, Essex, England. She was cremated and her ashes scattered in the wind.

Michael Thomas Barry is the author of Great Britain’s Literary Legends. The book can be purchased from Amazon through the following links:

Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1367513904&sr=8-2&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

Amazon UK - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1367514023&sr=8-2&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

English writer Jerome K. Jerome is born - 1859

2013-05-02T09:34:00.000-07:00

English writer Jerome K. Jerome was born on May 2, 1859 in Walsall, England. He is best known for the comic travelogue Three Men in a Boat (1889). Other works include the essay collections Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow, Second Thoughts of an Idle Fellow and Three Men on the Bummel, a sequel to Three Men in a Boat. He wished to go into politics or be a man of letters, but the death of his father when the younger Jerome was age 13 and of his mother when he was age 15 forced him to quit his studies and find work to support himself. He was employed at the London and North Western Railway, initially collecting coal that fell along the railway, and remained there for four years.

In 1877, inspired by his older sister’s love for the theatre, Jerome decided to try his hand at acting, under the stage name Harold Crichton and after three years on the road with no evident success, the 21-year-old Jerome decided he had had enough of stage life and sought other occupations. He tried to become a journalist, writing essays, satires and short stories, but most of these were rejected. Over the next few years he was a school teacher, a packer, and a solicitor's clerk. Finally, in 1885, he had some success with writing On the Stage and Off, a comic memoir of his experiences with acting. He then wrote Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow and Three Men in a Boat. With the financial security the sales of these books provided, Jerome was able to dedicate all of his time to writing. He wrote a number of plays, essays and novels, but was never able to recapture the success of his earlier works. In June 1927, on a automobile trip from Devon to London, Jerome suffered a stroke. He lay in Northhampton General Hospital for two weeks before dying on June 14, 1927. His remains were cremated at Golders Green and the ashes were interred at St. Mary's Church, in Ewelme, Oxfordshire.

Michael Thomas Barry is the author of Great Britain’s Literary Legends. The book can be purchased from Amazon through the following links:

Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1367512113&sr=8-2&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

Amazon UK - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1367512148&sr=8-6&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

Poet & Playwright John Dryden died - 1700

2013-05-01T08:26:00.001-07:00

English poet and playwright John Dryden died on May 1, 1700 in London, England. He was a dominating literary figure of the Restoration period in England. Dryden was born on August 9, 1631 in the village of Aldwincle, Northhamptonshire. He was the eldest of fourteen children born to Erasmus Dryden and Mary Pickering. His paternal grandfather was Sir Erasmus Dryden, 1^st Baronet. He was also a second cousin once removed of Jonathan Swift. In 1644 he was sent to Westminster School as a King’s Scholar. As a humanist public school, Westminster maintained a curriculum which trained pupils in the art of rhetoric and the presentation of arguments for both sides of a given issue. This is a skill which would remain with Dryden and influence his later writing and thinking, as much of it displays these dialectical patterns. The Westminster curriculum also included weekly translation assignments which developed Dryden’s capacity for assimilation. This was also to be exhibited in his later works.

In 1650 Dryden attended Trinity College, Cambridge where he would experience a return to the religious and political ethos of his childhood. Though very limited information on Dryden’s undergraduate years, he would most certainly have followed the standard curriculum of classics, rhetoric, and mathematics. In 1654 he obtained his BA, graduating at the top of his class. In June of the same year Dryden’s father died, leaving him some land which generated a little income, but not enough to live on. Returning to London, Dryden obtained work with Cromwell’s Secretary of State, John Thurloe. In 1658, he published his first important poem, Heroique Stanzas, a eulogy on Oliver Cromwell’s death which is cautious and prudent in its emotional display. In 1660 Dryden celebrated the Restoration of the monarchy and the return of Charles II with the poem Astraea Redux.

After the Restoration, Dryden quickly established himself as the leading poet and literary critic of his day and he transferred his allegiances to the new government. Dryden welcomed the new regime with two more panegyrics; To His Sacred Majesty: A Panegyric on his Coronation (1662), and To My Lord Chancellor (1662). These poems suggest that Dryden was looking to court a possible patron, but he was to instead make a living in writing for publishers, not for the aristocracy, and thus ultimately for the reading public. On December 1, 1663 Dryden married Lady Elizabeth Howard but little is known of the intimate side of his marriage. Lady Elizabeth however, was to bear him three sons and outlive him.

With the reopening of the theaters after the Puritan ban, Dryden busied himself with the composition of plays. His first play The Wild Gallant appeared in 1663. He led the way in the Restoration comedy with such works as Marriage a la Mode and All for Love. Dryden was never satisfied with his theatrical writings and frequently suggested that his talents were wasted on unworthy audiences. He thus was making a bid for poetic fame off-stage. In 1667, around the same time his dramatic career began, he published Annus Mirabilis, a lengthy historical poem which described the events of 1666. It was a modern epic in pentameter quatrains that established him as the preeminent poet of his generation, and was crucial in his attaining the posts of Poet Laureate (1668) and historiographer royal (1670).

When King James II was deposed in 1688, Dryden’s refusal to take the oaths of allegiance to the new government left him out of favor at court. Thomas Shadwell succeeded him as Poet Laureate, and he was forced to give up his public offices and live by the proceeds of his pen. Dryden translated works by Horace, Ovid, and others, a task which he found far more satisfying than writing for the stage. In 1694 he began work on what would be his most ambitious and defining work as translator, The Works of Virgil (1697). Dryden died on May 1, 1700, and was initially buried in St. Anne's Cemetery in London, before being exhumed and reburied in Westminster Abbey.

Michael Thomas Barry is the author of Great Britain’s Literary Legends. The book can be purchased from Amazon through the following links:

Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1367421605&sr=8-2&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

Amazon UK - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1367421640&sr=8-6&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

Charles Dickens novel "A Tale of Two Cities" is first published - 1859

2013-04-30T08:54:00.000-07:00

On April 30, 1859, Charles Dickens A Tale of Two Cities is first published. The 45-chapter novel was published in 31 weekly installments in Dickens' new literary periodical titled All the Year Round. It ran From April 1859 to November 1859. He also republished the chapters as eight monthly sections in green covers. All but three of Dickens' previous novels had appeared only as monthly installments. The novel is set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. With over 200 million copies sold, it ranks among the most famous works in the history of literature. The novel depicts the plight of the French peasantry demoralized by the French aristocracy in the years leading up to the revolution, the corresponding brutality demonstrated by the revolutionaries toward the former aristocrats in the early years of the revolution, and many unflattering social parallels with life in London during the same time period. It follows the lives of several protagonists through these events. The most notable are Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton. Darnay is a French former aristocrat who becomes a victim of the indiscriminate wrath of the revolution despite his virtuous nature, and Carton is a dissipated English barrister who endeavors to redeem his ill-spent life out of his unrequited love for Darnay's wife.

Michael Thomas Barry is the author of Great Britain’s Literary Legends. The book can be purchased from Amazon through the following links:

Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1367336806&sr=8-2&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

Amazon UK - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1367336841&sr=8-2&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

Henry James publishes the travel essay collection "Transatlantic Sketches - 1875

2013-04-29T07:42:00.000-07:00

On April 29, 1875, Henry James' collection of travel pieces, Transatlantic Sketches, is published. The same year, James publishes a collection of stories, A Passionate Pilgrim, and a novel, Roderick Hudson. These three works herald the beginning of James' long and influential writing career. He was born on April 15, 1843 in New York City. James is regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. He was the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James. He alternated between America and Europe for the first 20 years of his life, after which he settled in England, becoming a British citizen in 1915, one year before his death. He is primarily known for the series of novels in which he portrays the encounter of Americans with Europe and Europeans. His method of writing from the point of view of a character within a tale allows him to explore issues related to consciousness and perception, and his style in later works has been compared to impressionist painting.

James contributed significantly to literary criticism, particularly in his insistence that writers be allowed the greatest possible freedom in presenting their view of the world. James claimed that a text must first and foremost be realistic and contain a representation of life that is recognizable to its readers. Good novels, to James, show life in action and are, most importantly, interesting. The concept of a good or bad novel is judged solely upon whether the author is good or bad. An extraordinarily productive writer, in addition to his voluminous works of fiction he published articles and books of travel, biography, autobiography, and criticism, and wrote plays, some of which were performed during his lifetime with moderate success. His theatrical work is thought to have profoundly influenced his later novels and tales. James died on February 28, 1916 in London, England.

Michael Thomas Barry is the author of Great Britain’s Literary Legends. The book can be purchased from Amazon through the following links:

Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1367246163&sr=8-2&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

Amazon UK - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1367246210&sr=8-2&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

Poet John Milton sells rights copyright to "Paradise Lost" for 10 pounds - 1667

2013-04-27T09:53:00.001-07:00

On April 27, 1667, poet John Milton sells the copyright to his masterpiece Paradise Lost (1667) for a mere 10 pounds. Milton was born on December 9, 1608 in London, England. He was raised the indulged son of a prosperous London businessman. He excelled at languages in grammar school and at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he took a bachelor's and a master's, which he completed in 1632. He then decided to continue his own education, spending six years reading every major work of literature in several languages. He published an elegy for a college classmate, Lycidas, in 1637 and went abroad in 1638 to continue his studies. In 1642, Milton married 17-year-old Mary Powell, who left him just weeks later. He then wrote a series of pamphlets arguing for the institution of divorce based on incompatibility. The idea, however mild it seems today, was scandalous at the time, and Milton experienced a vehement backlash for his writing. Milton's wife returned to him in 1645, and the pair had three daughters. However, he continued espousing controversial views. He supported the execution of King Charles I, he railed against the control of the church by bishops, and he upheld the institution of Cromwell's commonwealth, for which he became secretary of foreign languages. In 1651, he lost his sight but fulfilled his government duties with the help of assistants, including poet Andrew Marvell. His wife died the following year. He remarried in 1656, but his second wife died in childbirth. Four years later, the commonwealth was overturned, and Milton was thrown in jail, saved only by the intervention of friends. He married for a third time in 1663. Blind, impoverished, and jobless, he began to dictate his poem Paradise Lost to his family. When the poem was ready for publication, he sold it for 10 pounds. Once printed, Paradise Lost was immediately hailed as a masterpiece of the English language. In 1671, he wrote Paradise Regained, followed by Samson Agonistes. Milton died on November 8, 1674 and was buried at St. Giles-without-Cripplegate Church in London.

Michael Thomas Barry is the author of Great Britain’s Literary Legends. The book can be purchased at Amazon through the following links:

Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1367081155&sr=8-2&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

Amazon UK - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1367081197&sr=8-6&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

William Shakespeare was baptized - 1564

2013-04-26T10:08:00.000-07:00

English playwright and poet William Shakespeare was baptized on April 26, 1564. The actual date of his birth is not known. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon.” His extant works, including some collaboration; they consist of about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, and two long narrative poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.

Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children. Between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and theater owner. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613 at age 49, where he died on April 23, 1616.

Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about such matters since his death. Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were mainly comedies and histories, genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the 16th century. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, and Macbeth, which are considered some of the finest works in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights.
Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. In 1623, John Heminges and Henry Condell, two friends and fellow actors of Shakespeare, published the First Folio, a collected edition of his dramatic works that included all but two of the plays now recognized as Shakespeare's. It was prefaced with a poem by Ben Jonson, in which Shakespeare is hailed, presciently, as "not of an age, but for all time."

Shakespeare was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but his reputation did not rise to its present heights until the 19th century. The Romantics, in particular, acclaimed Shakespeare's genius, and the Victorians worshiped Shakespeare with a reverence. In the 20th century, his work was repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly popular today and are constantly studied, performed, and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world.

Michael Thomas Barry is the author of Great Britain’s Literary Legends. The book can be purchased from Amazon through the following links:

Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1366995131&sr=8-2&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

Amazon UK - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1366995182&sr=8-7&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

Novelist Daniel Defoe died - 1731

2013-04-24T08:29:00.000-07:00

English novelist Daniel Defoe died on April 24, 1731 in London, England. He was a novelist, journalist, and pamphleteer, and is best known for his novel Robinson Crusoe (1719). Defoe was born on Daniel Foe (his original name) was probably born in the parish of St. Giles Cripplegate, London circa 1659-1661. He later added the aristocratic-sounding "De" to his name and on occasion claimed descent from the family of De Beau Faux. His parents were Presbyterian dissenters; during this period, the English government was often not tolerant of those who chose to worship outside the Church of England. Defoe is notable for being one of the earliest proponents of the novel, as he helped to popularize the form in Britain, and, along with others such as Samuel Richardson, is among the founders of the English novel. A prolific and versatile writer, he wrote more than 500 books, pamphlets and journals on various topics (including politics, crime, religion, marriage, psychology and the supernatural). He was also a pioneer of economic journalism. Daniel Defoe died on April 24, 1731, probably while in hiding from his creditors. He was interred at the Bunhill Fields Cemetery in London.

Michael Thomas Barry is the author of Great Britain’s Literary Legends. The book can be purchased from Amazon through the following links:

Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1366816886&sr=8-2&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

Amazon UK - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1366816921&sr=8-2&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

Poet William Wordsworth died - 1850

2013-04-23T15:45:00.000-07:00

Poet William Wordsworth died on April 23, 1850 in Cumberland, England. He was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads. He was born on April 7, 1770, in Cockermouth, Cumberland, to John and Anne (Cookson) Wordsworth, the second of their five children. His father was law agent and rent collector for Lord Lonsdale, and the family was fairly well off. After his mother's death in 1778 he was sent to Hawkshead Grammar School, near Windermere; in 1787 he went St. John’s College, Cambridge. He enjoyed hiking: during the "long" (i.e., summer) vacation of 1788 he tramped around Cumberland county; two years later went on a walking tour of France, Switzerland, and Germany; and in 1791, after graduation, trekked through Wales.

His enthusiasm for the French Revolution took him to France again in 1791, where he had an affair with Annette Vallon, who bore him an illegitimate daughter, Caroline, in 1792. Having run out of money, Wordsworth returned to England the following year, and the Anglo-French war, following the Reign of Terror, prevented his return for nine years. In 1794 he was reunited with his sister Dorothy, who became his companion, close friend, moral support, and housekeeper until her physical and mental decline in the 1830s.

The next year he met Coleridge, and the three of them grew very close, the two men meeting daily in 1797-98 to talk about poetry. The three friends traveled to Germany that fall, a trip that produced intellectual stimulation for Coleridge and homesickness for Wordsworth. After their return, William and Dorothy settled in his beloved Lake District, near Grasmere. The Peace of Amiens in 1802 allowed Wordsworth and his sister to visit France again to see Annette and Caroline. They arrived at a mutually agreeable settlement, and a few months later, after receiving an inheritance owed by Lord Lonsdale since John Wordsworth's death in 1783, William married Mary Hutchinson. By 1810 they had five children, but their happiness was tempered by the loss at sea of William's brother John (1805), the alienation from Coleridge in 1810, and the death of two children in 1812. In 1813 Wordsworth received an appointment as Distributor of Stamps for Westmorland, which him financially secure. The whole family, which included Dorothy, moved to Rydal Mount, between Grasmere and Rydal Water.

Wordsworth's literary career began with Descriptive Sketches (1793) and reached an early climax before the turn of the century, with Lyrical Ballads. His powers peaked with Poems in Two Volumes (1807), and his reputation continued to grow; even his harshest reviewers recognized his popularity and the originality. The important later works were well under way. His success with shorter forms made him the more eager to succeed with longer, specifically with a long, three-part "philosophical poem, containing views of Man, Nature, and Society, having for its principal subject the sensations and opinions of a poet living in retirement." The 17,000 lines which were eventually published made up only a part of this mammoth project. The second section, The Excursion, was completed (pub. 1814), as was the first book of the first part, The Recluse. During his lifetime he refused to print The Prelude, which he had completed by 1805, because he thought it was unprecedented for a poet to talk as much about himself — unless he could put it in its proper setting, which was as an introduction to the complete three-part Recluse. Inspiration gradually failed him for this project, and he spent much of his later life revising The Prelude. Finally fully reconciled to Coleridge, the two of them toured the Rhineland in 1828. Durham University granted him an honorary Doctor of Civil Law degree in 1838, and Oxford conferred the same honor the next year. When Robert Southey died in 1843, Wordsworth was named Poet Laureate. William Wordsworth died on April 23, 1850, and his wife published the much-revised Prelude that summer.

Michael Thomas Barry is the author of Great Britain’s Literary Legends. The book can be purchased from Amazon through the following links:

Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1366756661&sr=8-2&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

Amazon UK - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1366756699&sr=8-6&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

British novelist Henry Fielding was born - 1707

2013-04-22T07:30:00.000-07:00

Novelist and playwright Henry Fielding was born on April 22, 1707 in Glastonbury, Somerset, England. He was the son of a army lieutenant and a judge's daughter, and was educated at Eton and the University of Leiden before returning to England where he wrote a series of farces, operas and light comedies. Fielding formed his own company and was running the Little Theatre, Haymarket, when one of his satirical plays upset the government, which resulted in the Theatrical Licensing Act in 1737 effectively ended Fielding's career as a playwright. In 1739 Fielding turned to journalism and became editor of The Champion. He also began writing novels such as The Adventures of Joseph Andrews (1742), Abraham Adams (1842) and Jonathan Wild (1743). Fielding was made a justice of the peace for Westminster and Middlesex in 1748. He campaigned against legal corruption and helped his half-brother, Sir John Fielding, establish the Bow Street Runners. In 1749 Fielding's novel, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling was published to public acclaim. Literary historians generally agree that it is one of the greatest comic novels in British literature. Fielding followed this success with another well received novel, Amelia (1751). Fielding continued as a journalist and his satirical journal, Covent Garden, and continued to upset those in power. Throughout his life, Fielding suffered from poor health and by 1752 he could not move without the help of crutches. In an attempt to overcome his health problems, he traveled to Portugal and died there on October 8, 1754.

Michael Thomas Barry is the author of Great Britain’s Literary Legends. His book can be purchased from Amazon through the following links:

Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1366640613&sr=8-2&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

Amazon UK - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1366640646&sr=8-6&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

British novelist Charlotte Bronte was born - 1816

2013-04-21T15:23:00.000-07:00

British novelist Charlotte Bronte was born on April 21, 1816 in Thornton, Yorkshire, England. She was the only one of three Bronte sisters to live past age 31. Charlotte was one of six siblings who grew up in a gloomy parsonage in the remote English village of Hawthorne, surrounded by the marshy moors of Yorkshire. Her mother died when she was five, and Charlotte, her two older sisters, and her younger sister Emily, were sent to Clergy Daughter's School at Cowan Bridge in Lancashire. The cheap school featured unpalatable food, cold halls, and harsh discipline. Charlotte's two older sisters died of illness while at school, and the grim institution found its way into her masterpiece Jane Eyre (1847).

After their sisters' deaths, Charlotte and Emily were brought home, where they and their remaining siblings, Anne and Branwell, amused themselves by making up elaborate stories about fantastical worlds. When the girls grew older, they all took governess positions in private homes and from 1835 to 1838 Charlotte taught in a girls' school. Meanwhile, she and Emily formed a plan to open their own school, and in 1842 the sisters went to Brussels to study languages and school administration. In Brussels, Charlotte fell in love with the married headmaster, an experience she used as the basis for her last novel, Villette (1853). Returning to the parsonage at Hawthorne, the sisters attempted to set up their own school but could not attract pupils. Meanwhile, their adored brother Branwell had become a heavy drinker and opium user. When Emily got him a job teaching with her at a wealthy manor, he lost both their positions after a tryst with the mother of the house.

In 1846, Charlotte accidentally found some poems written by Emily. It turned out all three sisters had secretly been writing verse. They published their own book, Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell, adopting a pseudonym because they believed women writers were judged too softly. Only two copies sold, but publishers became interested in the sisters' work. Charlotte's Jane Eyre was published in 1847 under the name Currer Bell. Emily's Wuthering Heights and Anne's Agnes Grey were published later that year. Sadly, all three of Charlotte's siblings died within the next two years. Left alone, Charlotte cared for her ill father and married curate Arthur Bell Nicholls in 1854. Charlotte died during pregnancy shortly after the marriage on March 31, 1855.

Michael Thomas Barry is the author of Great Britain’s Literary Legends. The book can be purchased from Amazon through the following links:

Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1366582563&sr=8-2&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

Amazon UK - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1366582597&sr=8-2&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

Irish novelist Bram Stoker died - 1912

2013-04-20T09:39:00.001-07:00

Irish novelist Bram Stoker died on April 20, 1912 in London, England. He is best known today for his 1897 Gothic novel Dracula. During his lifetime, he was better known as personal assistant of actor Henry Irving and business manager of the Lyceum Theater in London, which Irving owned. Stoker was born in Clontarf (near Dublin, Ireland) on November 8, 1847. He was educated at Trinity College, where he won honors in science, mathematics, oratory, history, and composition. After graduating he entered the Irish Civil Service. In 1876 Stoker met the actor Henry Irving and by 1878 had moved to London where he was acting manager at the famous Lyceum Theater. It was there that Stoker entered into fashionable circles through which we learn much of his character and influences. In the same year Stoker married Florence Balcombe, who was also courted by Oscar Wilde. The Stokers' only child, Noel, was born in 1879.

Stoker's interest in the supernatural and the occult — which would become a salient focus for his later fiction — may have been rooted in his unidentified childhood illness, which supposedly kept him bed-ridden until the age of seven; this seclusion would be compounded by an interest in Irish folklore. Stoker’s first horror tale The Chain of Destiny was published in 1875. He then wrote a collection of children's stories Under the Sunset (1881), and his first novel The Snake's Pass (1890), but he did not realize fame until the overwhelming success of Dracula (1897). The responses in popular periodicals were broad, but generally positive. Stoker continued to write Gothic and fantasy fiction, including The Lair of the White Worm (1911), which would eventually be made into a cult film, and published Henry Irving's biography, Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving (1906). In 1907, he also entered the debate over censorship with the essays "The Censorship of Fiction" and "The Censorship of Stage Plays." On Saturday evening April 20, 1912, Stoker died at his London home from a stroke. His ashes are interred at the Golder’s Green Crematorium in London.

Michael Thomas Barry is the author of Great Britain’s Literary Legends. The book can be purchased from Amazon through the following links:

Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1366475555&sr=8-2&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

Amazon UK - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1366475636&sr=8-6&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

British poet George Lord Byron died - 1824

2013-04-19T08:37:00.001-07:00

On April 19, 1824, British poet George Lord Byron died in what is now Greece. He had traveled there to support the Greek struggle for independence from Turkey. Byron's scandalous history, exotic travels, and flamboyant life made such an impression on the world that the term "Byronic" was coined to mean romantic, arrogant, dark, and cynical. He was one of the leading figures in the Romantic movement. Byron was born on January 22, 1788 in Aberdeen, Scotland. His clubfoot and his impoverished environment made his childhood difficult, but at age 10 he inherited his great uncle's title. He attended Harrow, then Trinity College, Cambridge, where he ran up enormous debts and pursued passionate relationships with women and men. His first published volume of poetry, Hours of Idleness (1807), was not well received by critics, especially in Scotland, and his second published work, English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809), attacked the English literary establishment.

After attaining a Master's degree in 1809, he traveled in Portugal, Spain, and the Near East for two years. His experiences fed into his later works, including Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812), which brought him almost instant acclaim in England. As he said at the time, he "awoke one morning and found myself famous." His poetry, manners, fashion, and tastes were widely imitated. In 1815, he married Anne Isabella Milbanke, and the couple had a daughter, August Ada. The marriage quickly foundered, and the couple legally separated. By this time, scandal had broken out over Byron's suspected incest with his half-sister, Augusta Leigh, and he was ostracized from society and forced to flee England in 1816. He settled in Geneva, near Percy Bysshe Shelley and his wife, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. There, he became intimately involved with Mary's half-sister, Claire Clairmont, who bore his daughter Allegra in January 1817. Byron moved to Venice that year and entered a period of wild debauchery.

In 1819, he began an affair with the Countess Teresa Guiccioli, the young wife of an elderly count, and the two remained attached for many years. Byron, always an avid supporter of liberal causes and national independence, supported the Greek war for independence. He joined the cause in Greece, training troops in the town of Missolonghi. On February 15, 1824, he fell ill, and the usual remedy of bloodletting weakened him further. He made a partial recovery, but in early April he caught a violent cold which therapeutic bleeding, insisted on by his doctors, aggravated. It is suspected this treatment, carried out with unsterilized medical instrumentation, may have caused him to develop sepsis. He developed a violent fever, and died on April 19, 1824. Byron is buried at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Hucknall, Nottinghamshire, England.

Michael Thomas Barry is the author of Great Britain’s Literary Legends. The book can be purchased from Amazon through the following links:

Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1366385247&sr=8-2&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

Amazon UK - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1366385295&sr=8-1&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

British author & literary critic George Henry Lewes was born - 1817

2013-04-18T08:07:00.001-07:00

British literary critic and author George Henry Lewes was born on April 18, 1817 in London, England. He became part of the mid-Victorian ferment of ideas which encouraged discussion of Darwinism, positivism, and religious skepticism. However, he is perhaps best known today for having openly lived with author George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans), his soul-mate whose life and writings were enriched by their friendship, although they were never married. Lewes was an illegitimate son of a minor poet, John Lee Lewes, and Elizabeth Ashweek and grandson of comic actor Charles Lee Lewes. His mother married a retired sea captain when he was six and frequent changes of home meant he was educated in different places. Having abandoned successively a commercial and a medical career, he seriously thought of becoming an actor and appeared several times on stage between 1841 and 1850. Finally he devoted himself to literature, science and philosophy. He was friends with Leigh Hunt, and through him, entered London literary society and met John Stuart Mill, Thomas Carlyle, and Charles Dickens. In 1841 he married Agnes Jervis, daughter of Swynfen Stevens Jervis. Lewes met writer Mary Anne Evans, later to be famous as author George Eliot, in 1851, and by 1854 they had decided to live together. Lewes and Agnes Jervis had agreed to have an open marriage, and in addition to the three children they had together, Agnes had several children by other men.

Lewes supported himself by contributing reviews and articles to numerous magazines discussing a wide range of subjects, often imperfect but revealing acute critical judgment enlightened by philosophic study. In 1845–46, Lewes published The Biographical History of Philosophy, an attempt to depict the life of philosophers as an ever-renewed fruitless labor to attain the unattainable. In 1847–48, he published two novels Ranthrope, and Rose, Blanche and Violet. In 1850 he collaborated with Thornton Leigh Hunt in the foundation of the Leader, of which he was the literary editor. In 1853 he republished under the title of Comte's Philosophy of the Sciences a series of papers which had appeared in that journal. The culmination of Lewes's work in prose literature is the Life of Goethe (1855), probably the best known of his writings. Lewes’ versatility, and his combination of scientific with literary tastes, eminently fitted him to appreciate the wide-ranging activity of the German poet. Lewes died on November 30, 1878 in London, England and was buried at Highgate Cemetery (East) in London.

Michael Thomas Barry is the author of Great Britain’s Literary Legends. The book can be purchased from Amazon through the following links:

Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1366297160&sr=8-2&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

Amazon UK - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1366297308&sr=8-2&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

Scottish poet Robert Blair was born - 1699

2013-04-17T08:15:00.000-07:00

Scottish poet Robert Blair was born on April 17, 1699 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was the eldest son of the Rev. Robert Blair, one of the king's chaplains. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh and in the Netherlands. In 1738, he married Isabella, daughter of Professor William Law, with whom he had six children. His family's wealth gave him leisure for his favorite pursuits: gardening and the study of English poets. Blair published only three poems. One was a commemoration of his father-in-law and another was a translation. His reputation rests entirely on his third work, The Grave (1743), which is a poem written in blank verse on the subject of death and the graveyard. It is much less conventional than its gloomy title might lead one to expect. Its religious subject no doubt contributed to its great popularity, especially in Scotland, where it gave rise to the so-called "graveyard school" of poetry. The poem extends to 767 lines of very various merit, in some passages rising to great sublimity, and in others sinking to commonplace. The poem is now best known for the illustrations created by William Blake that were published in 1808. Robert Blair died on February 4, 1746.

Michael Thomas Barry is the author of Great Britain’s Literary Legends. The book can be purchased from Amazon through the following links:

Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1366211341&sr=8-2&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

Amazon UK - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1366211372&sr=8-2&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

English novelist & playwright Aphra Behn died - 1689

2013-04-16T10:10:00.001-07:00

On April 16, 1689, English novelist and playwright Aphra Behn died in London, England. She was a prolific dramatist of the English Restoration period, and is considered the first English professional female literary writer. Her writing contributed to the amatory fiction genre of British literature and was preoccupied with sexual love and romance. It was an early predecessor of the romance and was written by woman for woman. Information regarding her life is scant, especially regarding her early years. This may be due to intentional obscuring on Behn's part. Apocryphally, she was born in December 1640 in Harbledown near Canterbury. In The Histories and Novels of the Late Ingenious Mrs. Behn (1696) it states that Behn was born to Bartholomew Johnson, a barber, and Elizabeth Denham. There is little verifiable evidence to confirm any one story. Johnson was related to Francis, Lord Willoughby who commissioned him as lieutenant general of Surinam. In 1663, Aphra may have traveled with her father to Surinam. He died on the journey; however the rest of the family spent some months in the country. During this trip Aphra is reputed to have met an African slave leader, whose story formed the basis for one of her most famous works, Oroonoko (1688). The story may be apocryphal; the veracity of her journey to Suriname has been called into question. Shortly after her return to England from Surinam in 1664, Aphra may have married Johan Behn, a merchant of German or Dutch extraction. As with much of her life, there is little evidence for the facts of her marriage. He died or the couple separated soon after 1664.

She was a monarchist, and was dedicated to the restored King Charles II. As political parties emerged during this time, Behn became a Tory supporter. By 1666 Behn had become attached to the Court, possibly through the influence of Thomas Culpepper and other associates. The Second Anglo-Dutch War had broken out between England and the Netherlands in 1665 and she was recruited as a political spy to Antwerp on behalf of King Charles II. Her code name is said to have been Astrea, a name under which she later published many of her writings. Her chief role was to establish an intimacy with William Scot, son of Thomas Scot, a regicide who had been executed in 1660. William was believed to be ready to become a spy in the English service and to report on the doings of the English exiles that were plotting against the King. Behn's exploits were not profitable, however. Charles was slow in paying (if he paid at all), either for her services or for her expenses while abroad. Money had to be borrowed so that Behn could return to London, where a year's petitioning of Charles for payment went unheard and she ended up in a debtor’s prison. By 1669 an undisclosed source had paid her debts and she was released from custody.

She soon began to work for the King’s Company as a scribe. She had, however, only written poetry up until this point. She cultivated the friendship of various playwrights and poets, including John Dryden, and from 1670 until her death in 1689 she produced many plays and novels, poems and pamphlets. Her first play The Forc’d Marriage was staged in 1670, followed by The Amorous Prince (1671). She gradually moved towards comic works, which proved commercially successful. Her most popular works included The Rover and Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and his Sister (1684–87). Behn's novel Oroonoko (1688) is critically acknowledged as one of the most important works in the development of the English novel. The book is the tale of an enslaved African prince. It is notable for its exploration of slavery, race, and gender. In the coming years, Behn was immensely prolific, adapting plays, writing fiction and poetry, translating works from French and Latin. She caused scandal in some of her chosen subject matter, often alluding to sexual desire. She stated that the works would not have caused problems if they had been written by a man. Behn's work frequently takes homoerotic themes, featuring male to male love and her own sexual interest in women. As an example of her work, her best known poem, "The Disappointment,” is a story of a sexual encounter told from a woman's point of view that may be interpreted as a work about male impotence.

Aphra Behn died on April 16, 1689, and was buried in the East Cloister of Westminster Abbey. The inscription on her tombstone reads: Here lies a Proof that Wit can never be Defence enough against Mortality. She was quoted as stating that she had led a "life dedicated to pleasure and poetry." In Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own, she wrote – “All women together, ought to let flowers fall upon the grave of Aphra Behn... for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds... Behn proved that money could be made by writing at the sacrifice, perhaps, of certain agreeable qualities; and so by degrees writing became not merely a sign of folly and a distracted mind but was of practical importance.”

Michael Thomas Barry is the author of Great Britain’s Literary Legends. The book can be purchased from Amazon through the following links:

Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1366131600&sr=8-2&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

Amazon UK - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1366131644&sr=8-1&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

Fade to Black is named winner of the 2013 Beverly Hills Book Awards

2013-04-15T10:01:00.000-07:00

Michael Thomas Barry's Fade to Black Graveside Memories of Hollywood Greats is named the winner of the 2013 Beverly Hills Book Awards in Arts & Entertainment.

http://www.beverlyhillsbookawards.com/2013-BHBA-Winnners-and-Finalists.htm

English poet & essayist Matthew Arnold died - 1888

2013-04-15T09:09:00.000-07:00

English poet and essayist Matthew Arnold died on April 15, 1888 in Liverpool, England. Although remembered now for his elegantly argued critical essays, Arnold began his career as a poet, winning early recognition as a student at the Rugby School where his father, Thomas Arnold, had earned national acclaim as a strict and innovative headmaster. He was born on December 24, 1822 in Laleham, Surrey, England. Arnold also studied at Balliol College, Oxford University. In 1844, after completing his undergraduate degree at Oxford, he returned to Rugby as a teacher of classics. After marrying in 1851, Arnold began work as a government school inspector, a grueling position which nonetheless afforded him the opportunity to travel throughout England and the Continent. Throughout his thirty-five years in this position Arnold developed an interest in education, an interest which fed into both his critical works and his poetry. Empedocles on Etna (1852) and Poems (1853) established Arnold's reputation as a poet and in 1857 he was offered a position, which he accepted and held until 1867, as Professor of Poetry at Oxford. Arnold became the first professor to lecture in English rather than Latin. During this time Arnold wrote the bulk of his most famous critical works, Essays in Criticism (1865) and Culture and Anarchy (1869), in which he sets forth ideas that greatly reflect the predominant values of the Victorian era.

Meditative and rhetorical, Arnold's poetry often wrestles with problems of psychological isolation. Despite his own religious doubts, a source of great anxiety for him, in several essays Arnold sought to establish the essential truth of Christianity. His most influential essays, however, were those on literary topics. In The Function of Criticism (1865) and The Study of Poetry (1880) Arnold called for a new epic poetry: a poetry that would address the moral needs of his readers, "to animate and ennoble them." Arnold's arguments, for a renewed religious faith and an adoption of classical aesthetics and morals, are particularly representative of mainstream Victorian intellectual concerns. In 1883 and 1886, Arnold made two lecturing tours of the United States. He died on April 15, 1888 Matthew Arnold died in Liverpool in 1888 and was buried at the All Saints Church in Laleham, Surrey, England.

Michael Thomas Barry is the author of Great Britain’s Literary Legends. His book can be purchased from Amazon through the following links:

Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1366041838&sr=8-2&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

Amazon UK - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1366041874&sr=8-2&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

English poet Christopher Smart was born - 1722

2013-04-11T08:17:00.001-07:00

English poet Christopher Smart was born on April 11, 1722 in Shipbourne, England. He was a major contributor to two popular magazines and a friend to influential cultural icons like Samuel Johnson and Henry Fielding. Smart was infamous as the pseudonymous midwife "Mrs. Mary Midnight" and widespread accounts of his father-in-law, John Newbery, locking him away in a mental asylum for many years over Smart's supposed religious "mania". Even after Smart's eventual release, a negative reputation continued to pursue him as he was known for incurring more debt than he could pay off; this ultimately led to his confinement in debtor's prison until his death. Smart's two most widely known works are A Song to David and Jubilate Agno, both at least partly written during his confinement in asylum. However, Jubilate Agno was not to be published until 1939 and A Song to David received mixed reviews until the 19th century. To his contemporaries, Smart was known mainly for his many contributions in the journals The Midwife and The Student, along with his famous Seaton Prize poems and his mock epic The Hilliad. Although he is primarily recognized as a religious poet, his poetry includes various other themes, such as his theories on nature and his promotion of English nationalism. On April 20, 1770, Smart was arrested for debt and sent to the King’s Bench Prison in London. On May 21, 1771, he died from either liver failure or pneumonia shortly after completing his final work, Hymns, for the Amusement of Children.

Michael Thomas Barry is the author of Great Britain’s Literary Legends. The book can be purchased from Amazon through the following links:

Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1365692925&sr=8-2&keywords=michael+thomas+barry

Amazon UK - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Britains-Literary-Legends-Writers/dp/0764344382/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1365692968&sr=8-1&keywords=michael+thomas+barry