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LOWELL, JAMES RUSSELL, a distinguished American poet, critic and scholar,
born in Cambridge, Mass., February 22nd, 1819. He graduated from Harvard,
in 1838, and was admitted to the bar, but soon abandoned law as a
profession and devoted himself to literature. His _Biglow Papers_
first made him popular, in 1848. In 1857, on the establishment of the
_Atlantic Monthly_, he was made editor of that popular magazine. His
prose works consisting chiefly of critical and miscellaneous essays, "show
their author to be the leading American critic, are a very agreeable union
of wit and wisdom, and are the result of extensive reading, illuminated by
excellent critical insight." His humour is rich and unrivalled and he seems
equally at home in the playful, the pathetic, or the meditative realms of
poetry. In 1880, he was appointed Envoy Extraordinary to Great Britain,
which office he held until 1885.

LYTTON, LORD, Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer Lytton, a distinguished
novelist, poet, dramatist and politician, was born May, 1805. He was the
son of William Earle Bulwer, and owes his chief fame to his novels, some of
which are among the best in the English language, notably _The Caxtons,
My Novel, What will He do with It?_ and _A Strange Story_. As a
playwright he was equally successful; he was the author of The Lady of
Lyons--the most popular play of modern days;--_Richelieu, Not so Bad as we
Seem_, the admirable comedy of _Money_, etc. A man of prodigious
industry he showed himself equal to the highest efforts of literature;
fiction, poetry, the drama, all were enriched by his labours. As a
politician he was not quite so successful. In 1866 he was raised to the
peerage as Baron Lytton. He assumed the name of Lytton, his mother's maiden
name, in 1844, on succeeding to the Knebworth estates. He died January
18th, 1873, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

LYTTON, EDWARD ROBERT BULWER, The son of the preceding author, better known
perhaps by his _nom de plume_, Owen Meredith, born November 8th, 1831.
He entered the diplomatic service in 1849. and has represented the British
Government with great distinction. His chief works are _Clytemestra,
Lucile, The Wanderer, Fables in Song, The Ring of Amasis_, a prose
romance, etc.

MACAULAY, THOMAS BABINGTON, a celebrated historian, orator, essayist and
poet, was born at Rothley Temple, Lincolnshire, October 26th, 1800. From
his earliest years he exhibited signs of superiority and genius, and earned
a great reputation for his verses and oratory. He studied law and was
called to the Bar, commencing his political career in 1830, and in 1834 he
went to India, as a member of the Supreme Council, returning in 1838 to
England, where for a few years he pursued politics and letters,
representing Edinburgh in the House of Commons, but being rejected, on
appearing for re-election, he devoted himself to literature. During the
last twelve years of his life his time was almost wholly occupied with his
_History of England_, four volumes of which he had completed and
published, and a fifth left partly ready for the press when he died.
Besides the _History_ and _Essays_, he wrote a collection of
beautiful ballads, including the well-known _Lays of Ancient Rome_. In
1849 he was elected Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow, and in 1857,
his honours culminated in his elevation to the peerage as Baron Macaulay.
He died on the 28th of December, 1869.

MILTON, JOHN, An immortal poet, and with the exception of Shakespeare, the
most illustrious name in English Literature, was born in Bread Street,
London, on December 9th, 1608. He graduated at Cambridge, and was intended
for the law or the Church, but did not enter either calling. He settled at
Horton in Buckinghamshire, where he wrote his _Comus, L'Allegro, Il
Penuroso_, and _Lycidas_. He took the side of the Parliament in the
dispute with King Charles I. and rendered his party efficient service with
his pen. About 1654 he became totally blind, and after serving the
Protector as Latin Secretary for four or five years, he retired from public
life in 1657. In 1665, the time of the Great Plague, he first showed the
finished manuscript of his great poem, _Paradise Lost_, which was
first printed in 1667, this immortal work being sold to a bookseller for
L5! He afterwards wrote _Paradise Regained_, but it is, in all
respects, quite inferior to _Paradise Lost_. He died in London, on the
8th of November, 1674.

MOORE, THOMAS, a celebrated poet, born in Dublin, May 28th, 1779, and was
educated at Trinity College in that city. He studied law but never
practised. He published two volumes of poems previous to the production of
_Lalla Rookh_, his masterpiece, which was highly successful and was
published in 1817. His works are very numerous and some of them are
extremely popular, the best being _Lalla Rookh_ and _Irish
Melodies_. As a poet he displays grace, pathos, tenderness and
imagination, but is deficient in power and naturalness. He died February
26th, 1852.

POE, EDGAR ALLAN, a distinguished American poet and prose writer, born in
Baltimore in 1809. He was an entirely original figure in American
literature, his temperament was melancholy, he hated restraint of every
kind and he gave way to dissipation, and his life is a wretched record of
poverty and suffering. But the _Bells, The Raven_ and _Annabel
Lee_, his principal poetical works, are wonderfully melodious,
constructed with great ingenuity, and finished with consummate art. He
wrote several weird prose tales and some critical essays. He died at
Baltimore, under circumstances of great wretchedness, October 7th, 1849.

POPE, ALEXANDER, a popular English poet and critic, born in London, May
22nd, 1688. During his childhood he displayed great ability and resolved to
be a poet. His _Pastorals_ were written at the age of sixteen. He
wrote a large number of poems, the most celebrated being; the _Essay on
Criticism, The Rape of the Lock_ and the _Essay on Man_. He also
published translations of Homer's _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_. His
talent for satire is conspicuous in the _Duncaid_. He possessed little
originality or creative imagination, but he had a vivid sense of the
beautiful, and an exquisite taste. He owed much of his popularity to the
easy harmony of his verse, the keenness of his satire, and the brilliancy
of his antithesis. He has, with the exception of Shakespeare, added more
phrases to the English language than any other poet. He died on the 30th of
May, 1744.

PROCTER, ADELAIDE ANNE, an English poet, born in London, October 30th,
1825. She was a daughter of Bryan Waller Procter (Barry Cornwall). She was
a contributor to _Household Words_ and _All the Year Round_, and
published in 1858, a volume of poetry, _Legends and Lyrics_. A second
volume was issued in 1861. She died February 3rd, 1864.

READ, THOMAS BUCHANAN, a distinguished American artist and poet, born in
Pennsylvania, March 12th, 1822. He visited England and also spent several
years in Florence and Rome. He wrote several good poems, but his
_Sheridan's Ride_, brought him more popularity than any of his
previous works. He died May 11th, 1872.

ROGERS, SAMUEL, an eminent English poet, born in London, July 30th, 1763.
He was a rich banker and enabled to devote much leisure time to literature,
of which he was a magnificent patron. His best works are _Pleasures of
Memory, Human Life_, and _Italy_, the last appeared in a
magnificent form, having cost L10,000 in illustrations alone. Died December
18th, 1855.

SAXE, JOHN GODFREY, a humorous American poet, born in Vermont, in 1816. He
has been most successful in classical travesties and witty turns of
language, and he has won a good place as a sonneteer. A complete edition of
his poems (the 42nd) was published in 1881.

SCOTT, SIR WALTER. An illustrious Scotch author, novelist and poet, born in
Edinburgh, August 15th, 1771. He was called to the bar in 1792, and being
in circumstances favourable for the pursuit of literature, he commenced his
poetical career, by translating several poems from the German. In 1805, he
published the _Lay of the Last Minstrel_, and became at once one of
the most distinguished poets of the age. It was speedily followed by
_Marmion_ and the _Lady of the Lake_ (1810), and many other
poems, all of which added to his fame. In August, 1813, he was offered the
position of poet-laureate, which he declined. But he was destined to add to
his already great reputation as a poet, by a success equally as great in
the realms of prose fiction. In 1814 appeared _Waverley_, published
anonymously, and its success was enormous. It was quickly followed by the
other volumes of the "Great Unknown," as Scott was now designated,
amounting in all to twenty-seven volumes. In 1820 he was created a baronet
and his degree of success had been unparalleled and had raised him to
apparent affluence, but, in 1826, by the failure of two publishing houses
with which he was connected, he was reduced to bankruptcy. He set himself
resolutely to redeem himself from the load of debt (L147,000) but, although
successful, his faculties gave way before the enormous mental toil to which
they were subjected. He died at Abbotsford, Sept. 21st, 1832. In addition
to the poetical works and the Waverley Novels, Scott was the author of many
other popular works, too well known to need mentioning here.

SHAKESPEARE, WILLIAM.--The greatest poet of England, born at Stratford-on-
Avon, Warwickshire, April 23rd, 1564. Unfortunately the materials for a
biography of the poet are very meagre, and are principally derived from
tradition. He appears to have been well educated, married very early, when
about nineteen years of age, his wife, Anne Hathaway, being then twenty-
six. Shortly after this he left Stratford for London, where he became an
actor and eventually a writer of plays. His first printed drama (Henry VI.,
part II.) was issued in 1594. In 1597, he purchased the best house in his
native town, and about 1604 he retired to Stratford, where he spent the
last twelve years of life, and where he is supposed to have written many of
his plays, but we have no means of determining the exact order in which
they were composed. He died April 23rd, 1616. His works are of world-wide
fame, and need not be enumerated here. The name is often spelled
SHAKSPEARE.

SHELLEY, PERCY BYSSHE.--An eminent English poet, born near Horsham, Sussex,
August 4th, 1792. He studied at Oxford, from whence he was expelled for
publishing a _Defence of Atheism_. He made an unhappy marriage and
soon separated from his wife. He published _Queen Mab, Alsator_, and
in 1817 the _Revolt of Islam_. In 1818 he left England, to which he
was destined never to return. In July, 1822, (July 8th), while residing at
Leghorn, he went out on the Gulf of Spezzia, in a sail boat, which was
upset in a squall, and the poet perished. In addition to the poems already
mentioned he wrote _The Cenci_, _Adonais_, _Prometheus_, and
a number of smaller pieces. As a poet he was gifted with genius of a very
high order, with richness and fertility of imagination, but of a vague and
partly unintelligible character.

SHERIDAN, RICHARD BRINSLEY BUTLER.--A celebrated Irish orator and
dramatist, born in Dublin in 1751. He directed his attention to literature,
and in 1775 produced the comedy of _The Rivals_, and several other
pieces. In 1777, his celebrated comedy of _The School for Scandal_,
established his reputation as a dramatic genius of the highest order. He
managed Drury Lane Theatre for some time, and also entered Parliament. His
speech on the impeachment of Warren Hastings is regarded as one of the most
splendid displays of eloquence in ancient or modern times. He died in
London, in July, 1816.

SOUTHEY, ROBERT.--An eminent author and poet, born at Bristol, August 12th,
1774. Intended for the church, he studied at Oxford, but abandoned divinity
for literature. His first poem was _Joan of Arc_, published in 1796.
He was a most voluminous writer, being the author of more than 100 volumes
of poetry, history, travels, etc., and also of 126 papers, upon history,
biography, politics and general literature. His principal works are
_Madoc, Thalaba the Destroyer, The Curse of Kehama_, lives of
_Nelson, Bunyan, John Wesley_, etc., etc. He was appointed poet
laureate in 1813. He died at Keswick, Cumberland, March 21st, 1843.

TENNYSON, ALFRED (Lord Tennyson), a distinguished and the most popular
English poet, born at Somersby, Lincolnshire, August 5th, 1809. He early
displayed poetic genius, his first volume (written in conjunction with his
brother Charles) entitled, _Poems by Two Brothers_, having been issued
in 1827. In 1842, a volume of his poems was published and was most
enthusiastically received, since which period his well-known productions
have been issued at intervals. We need only mention _The Princess, In
Memoriam_, (a record of the poet's love for Arthur Hallam), _Maud,
Idyls of the King, Enoch Arden_, and the dramas of _Queen Mary,
Harold_, etc. In 1833 he was appointed poet-laureate. Refined taste and
exquisite workmanship are the characteristics of all he has written. His
range of poetic power is very wide, and as a describer of natural scenery
he is unequalled, while his rich gift of imagination, his pure and elevated
diction, and his freedom from faults of taste and manner, give him a high
place amongst those who are the great masters of song. He was elevated to
the peerage in January, 1884, as Baron Tennyson.

THACKERAY, WILLIAM MAKEPEACE.--A distinguished English novelist and
humourist, was born in Calcutta, July 18th, 1811. He I was educated at
Cambridge, and at first inclined to be an artist, but after a few years,
devoted himself to literature. He gained popularity as a contributor to
_Punch_, but his progress in popular favour was not rapid, until in
1846, when he published his _Vanity Fair_, one of his best works,
which raised him into the first rank of English novelists. His subsequent
works all tended to enhance his popularity. We need only mention
_Pendennis, the Newcomes, History of Henry Esmond_, the
_Virginians_, etc. He was also a popular lecturer, and his lectures on
the _Four Georges_, and _The English Humourists of the Eighteenth
Century_, were very successful. He edited the _Cornhill Magazine_
from 1860 until April, 1862, when he relinquished it, continuing however to
write for the Magazine. He died somewhat suddenly on December 24th, 1863,
leaving a novel, _Denis Duval_, unfinished. His inimitably graceful
style, in which he has been excelled by no novelist, may be in part due to
his familiarity with Addison, Steele, Swift and their contemporaries. His
pathos is as touching and sincere as his humour is subtle and delicate. His
fame as a novelist has caused his poems to be somewhat neglected, but his
admirable ballads and society verses attain a degree of excellence rarely
reached by such performances.

THOMSON, JAMES.--A celebrated poet, born in Roxburghshire, Scotland,
September 11th, 1700. He went to London to seek his fortune in 1725, and
his poem of _The Seasons_, published in 1726-30, was an important era
in the history of English poetry, as it marked the revival of the taste for
the poetry of nature. Besides the _Seasons_, Thomson wrote some
tragedies, which were failures, also what some critics consider his best
work, _The Castle of Indolence_, published in 1748. He is often
careless and dull, his poetry disfigured by classic allusions to Ceres,
Pomona, Boreas, etc., but he had a genuine love of nature, and his
descriptions, despite their artificial dress, bear the stamp of reality. He
was successful in obtaining a comfortable competence by his literary
exertions, and died August 27th, 1748.

TWAIN, MARK (Samuel Langhorne Clemens.) An American humourist, who has
achieved great popularity, was born in Florida, Missouri, in 1835, and
after an apprenticeship on the "Press," sprang into notice on the
publication of his _Innocents Abroad_, published in 1869, a semi-
burlesque account of the adventures of a party of American tourists in
Europe and the East. _Roughing It_, and other works of his published
subsequently, have been equally successful. The qualities of his style are
peculiar, slyness and cleverness in jesting being his predominant
qualities.

WHITTIER, JOHN GREENLEAF.--The Quaker Poet of America, born December 17th,
1807, near Haverhill, Mass. He passed his early years on his father's farm,
but in 1829 he began to be connected with the "Press" and edited newspapers
until 1839. He early identified himself with the Anti-Slavery movement and
rendered it noble service by his pen and influence. His first work,
_Legends of New England_, was published in 1831. His works are very
numerous, _Maud Mueller_ being the best known of his poems, and
_Barbara Frietchie_ of his poems connected with the Civil War. As a
writer of prose he unites strength and grace in an unusual degree, and his
poetic effusions are characterized by intense feeling and by all the spirit
of the true lyric poet.

WILLIS, NATHANIEL PARKER.--A distinguished American poet and writer,
born at Portland, Maine, January 20th, 1806. He graduated from Yale in
1827 and devoted himself to literature, publishing a volume in that year
which was well received. He wrote between thirty and forty separate
publications, in addition to editing the _Evening Mirror_ and other
periodicals including the _Home Journal_. Though marred by occasional
affectation, the sketches of Willis are light, graceful compositions,
but the artificiality of his poems have caused them to be neglected.
He died at Idlewild, New York, January 20th, 1867.

WORDSWORTH, WILLIAM.--An illustrious English poet, born at Cockermouth,
Cumberland, April 7th, 1770. He studied at Cambridge and took his B. A.
degree in 1791. In 1793 (after a residence for a short time in France) he
produced his first verses, entitled An Evening Walk. In 1798, a small
volume entitled _Lyrical Ballads_, was published in conjunction with
ST. Coleridge, but was not a success. In 1800, he settled in Grasmere,
Westmoreland, where also resided Southey, Coleridge, de Quincy, and Wilson,
to whom the critics applied the term "Lake School." In 1813 he removed to
Rydal Mount, where he published _The Excursion_ in 1814, _The White
Doe of Rylston, Peter Bell, The Waggoner, The Prelude_, etc. In 1843 he
was appointed to succeed Southey as poet-laureate. He is undoubtedly a poet
of the first rank. Regarding Nature as a living and mysterious whole,
constantly acting on humanity, the visible universe and its inhabitants
were alike to him full of wonder, awe and mystery. His influence on the
literature and poetry of Britain and America has been immense, and is yet
far from being exhausted. He died April 23rd, 1850.

YOUNG, EDWARD, An English divine and poet, born at Upham, Hampshire, in
1684. He was educated at Oxford, and in 1727 was ordained and appointed to
the living of Welwyn, Hertfordshire. As a poet he excels most in his
_Night Thoughts_, which abound with ornate images, but are often very
obscure. He wrote several other works. Died in 1765.

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