VICTORIAN AUTHOR BIOS

Tennyson, Alfred Lord: Studied at Cambridge, part of an influential writer’s group called the “Apostles.” Came from a large family, his father’s death left the family without enough money for Tennyson to finish his education.  The death of his best friend, Arthur Hallam, to whom he dedicated a famous poem “In Memoriam.”  He spent some time in a mental hospital, but later became the Poet Laureate after Wordsworth, considered the greatest living English poet in his lifetime.

Browning, Robert and Elizabeth Barrett. Originally wrote under a number of pseudonyms, educated at home, Robert wrote a love letter to Elizabeth Barrett  about her poetry without ever having met her. She, an invalid, wrote back, beginning what turned into a famous romance and marriage that lasted until Elizabeth’s death.  She eloped to be with Robert (her father was intensely over-protective, and refused to see her after she eloped). She was the more famous in her lifetime, but later Robert’s work spawned “Browning Societies” where people read and studied his work.

Arnold, Matthew: son of a famous clergyman, won a scholarship to Oxford.  Worked as a government inspector of schools, had two writing careers, one in poetry, and next as a literary critic.

Rossetti, Dante Gabriel and sister Christina Rossetti: Their father was an Italian intellectual in exile in London England. Dante’s first wife committed suicide, he put his poetry manuscript in her coffin in grief, but later had it dug up so he could retrieve it.  His sister Christina and a brother were also famous writers. Both Rossetti’s works were scolded for their sensuous detail, referred to as the “Fleshly School of Poetry.” Christina was intensely religious, having turned down two marriage proposals because the young men were not as serious about their faith as she was.

Hopkins, Gerard Manley. Hopkins grew up in the Protestant Church of England but converted to Roman Catholicism and became a Jesuit priest.  He was sent to Ireland as a professor of Greek at a Catholic University in Dublin, where he died of Typhoid fever. He wrote poetry as a young man, stopped when he entered the priesthood for seven years, until his order asked him to compose a poem over the historical event, the “Wreck of the Deutschland” in which a group of nuns perished at sea in a horrific storm. Hopkins individual voice, his love of nature, and his invention of “Sprung Rhyme” a driving, compressed syllabic verse, has made him popular in generations since, notably during the 1960’s hippie counter-culture movement.

Dickens, Charles: Second of 8 children, he lived for a while in debtor’s prison with his parents and siblings. Dickins early goal was to be an actor, which did ot pan out, but he became famous as a writer of installments in magazines: Oliver Twist was originally written as a series of installments, as was Great Expectations, David Copperfield,  etc. crowds gathered on the docks to get his magazine installments hot of the presses.

Carroll, Lewis. Lewis Carroll was a pen name for Charles Dodgson.  He was a professor at Oxford, where he spent time with a fellow professor/Dean of the college and his three daughters. One of the girls, Alice Liddell, because the heroins for Carroll’s books Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Alice Through the Lookinglass. He developed a device that allowed him to jot story ideas down without getting out of bed or turning on a light.

Kipling, Rudyard: Born in Bombay, India, where father was a professor at the University of Bombay. English citizens living in India customarily sent their children back to England for schooling,so Rudyard and a sister were left wit foster parents.  Kipling returned to India at 17 to write for a newspaper, but quickly became popular as a fiction writer both in India and in England.  Kipling was the first British writer to win the Nobel prize for Literature. He was concerned that England not lose sight of the idea that their goal in extending the empire was to bring comfort to others in the world, not to rule with an iron fist for monetary reasons.

Wilde, Oscar: Born in Dublin, Ireland. Father was a surgeon and mother was a poet; he studied at trinity College in Ireland and them at Oxford.  Wilde championed “Aestheticism,” a movement dedicated to avoiding crass commercialism and creating “art for art’s sake.” He became famous with “The Picture of Dorian Gray.” Wilde was gay, and a relationship with the son of the Marquess of Queensberry resulted in the Marquess’ persecuting Wilde politically; Wilde was sentenced to prison for two years for sodomy (your lit book calls it “immoral conduct  ;) but was eventually released due to pressure put on the government by Wilde’s friends and supporters.

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan: Irish-catholic, born in Scotland, originally studied to be a physician, but made a better living writing. His Holmes stories were so popular, London wore black the week he killed Holmes off in the stories, and people wrote obituaries for Holmes as if he were a real human being. Doyle had grown tired of writing the Holme’s stories, and wanted more attention given to his serious writing on the paranormal—unfortunately for Doyle, these writings of his were never taken seriously. Various serious personal losses  (father, first wife, son) caused him to seek contact with them after death through séances . He was also a promoter of the Cottingly Faerie photographs, the subject of the movie Fairy Tale: a True Story. Public pressure caused Doyle to bring Holmes back for a prequel tale, “The Hound of the Baskervilles,” one of his most famous tales.