Francis Bacon (1561-1626) Francis Bacon was the son of Nicolas Bacon, the Lord Keeper of the Seal of Elizabeth I. He entered Trinity College Cambridge at age 12. Bacon later described his tutors as “Men of sharp wits, shut up in their cells of a few authors, chiefly Aristotle, their Dictator.” His father died when he was 18. He turned to the law and at 23 he was already in the...

Emily Dickinson (1830 – 1886) Emily Dickinson was an American lyrical poet, and an obsessively private writer — only seven of her some 1800 poems were published during her lifetime. Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a family well-known for educational and political activity. Her father, an orthodox Calvinist, was a lawyer and treasurer of Amherst College, and also served in Congress. She was educated at Amherst Academy (1834-47) and...

Edward Herbert (1582 – 1648)   Edward Herbert was born at Eyton, Shropshire, on March 3, 1582. He was the eldest son of Richard Herbert (c.1554-96), Sheriff of Montgomeryshire and an MP, and Magdalen Herbert (later Lady Danvers), the patron of John Donne and other literary figures. He was largely educated at home, but as a boy he came under the tutelage of the Welsh autodidact Edward Thelwall, who apparently taught...

Edmund Wailer (1606 – 1687) Edmund Waller was a celebrated poet and wit in his lifetime, and many of his poems had long circulated in manuscript before the 1645 publication of his Poems. The first fully authorised edition was that of 1664. Edmund Waller was born on March 3, 1606 in Coleshill, Hertfordshire (now in Buckinghamshire), the eldest son of a wealthy landowner. He was educated at Eton and King’s College,...

Edgar Allen Poe (1809 – 1849) Edgar Allen Poe was born in Boston, January 19, 1809. His father, the son of a distinguished officer in the Revolutionary army, was educated for the law, but having married the beautiful English actress, Elizabeth Arnold, he abandoned law, and in company with his wife, led a wandering life on the stage. The two died within a short time of each other, leaving three children...

E.M. Forster (1879 – 1970) Edward Morgan Forster was a noted English author and critic and a member of the Bloomsbury group. He was born in London on January 1, 1871 as the son of an architect, who died before his only child was two years old. Forster attended King’s College, Cambridge (1897-1901), where he met members of the later formed Bloomsbury group. After graduating he travelled in Italy and Greece...

D.H. Lawrence (1885 – 1930) D.H Lawrence was an English novelist, story writer, critic, poet and painter, one of the greatest figures in the 20th-century English literature. Snake and How Beastly the Boingeoisie is arc probably his most anthologised poems. David Herbert Lawrence was born on September 11, 1885, in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, central England. He was educated at Nottingham High School, to which he had won a scholarship. He worked as...

Christina (Georgina) Rossetti ( 1830 -1894 ) Christina Rossetti was born in London. Her father was the poet Gabriele Rossetti (1783-1854), professor of Italian at King’s College from 1831. He resigned in 1845 because of blindness. Christina was educated at home by her mother, Frances Polidori, a former governess. She shared her parents’ interest in poetry and was portrayed in the paintings and drawings of the Pre-Raphaelites. Christina was the model...