Celebrity Graveland

September 18, 1709 – December 13, 1784

Samuel Johnson was – and remains – one of the most influential English writers of all time. With works ranging from poems to a literal dictionary, Johnson’s contributions to British literature ran far, wide and very, very deep. Sometimes referred to as “Dr. Johnson”, he wrote in a number of genres including, drama, essays, biographies, literary criticism and sermons. He is widely regarded as “the most distinguished man of letters in English history.”

Continue reading →

May 07, 1812 – December 12, 1889

Robert Browning was one of the leading poets and writers in Victorian England. Specializing in long-form poems and dramatic monologues, Browning directly influenced generations of writers ranging from Oscar Wilde to Ezra Pound to Stephen King. In addition to poems like The Pied Piper of Hamelin, My Last Duchess and Porphyria’s Lover, he also wrote a number of plays and songs. 1869’s verse novel The Ring and the Book was his most successful and lucrative work during his lifetime and earned him international acclaim.

Continue reading →

circa 1340s – October 25, 1400

Geoffrey Chaucer is one of the earliest English poets and writers whose works and legacy endure into modern times. He spent much of his life in or adjacent to the royal court thanks to his father’s position in London. Due to his life in public service, much was recorded officially about Chaucer which is why we know so much about him more than 600 years later.

Born into a family of winemakers, Chaucer served – among other stations – as page to the Countess of Ulster, who married the son of King Edward III. He served as part of the English army during the Hundred Years’ War. And, most notably to most high school students in English-speaking literature classes…he wrote really long poems.

Continue reading →

June 02, 1840 – January 11, 1928

You can take the boy out of Wessex, but you can’t take the Wessex out of the boy.

Victorian novelist, poet and lover of old buildings, Thomas Hardy, wrote often about the fantasized English county of Wessex in his works. Though the places he referenced were real (including his home county of Dorset,) he recalled the archaic name “Wessex” to incorporate it all into an idealized whole. The themes and arcs of his stories played heavily on the country life of his youth. When he relocated to London in his 20s, the stark difference between the metropolitan privilege of the capital and the struggles of his beloved rural stomping grounds became a central tenant in his writings.

Continue reading →

August 06, 1809 – October 06, 1892

‘Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all
-Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “In Memoriam A.H.H”

Drawing on his interests in medieval legend and mythology and the lush imagery championed by the Romantic poets of his youth, Alfred Tennyson became one of the most successful poets of the Victorian era. The musicality of his rhyming and his valiant and sometimes mournful subject matter made him popular in his native England. His celebrity and talent led to his appointment in 1850 as Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom after the death of the previous appointee, William Wordsworth. He held the post for more than 4 decades. His most well-known poems like “Ulysses”, “Break Break Break”, “Crossing the Bar” and “The Charge of the Light Brigade” have lent phrases and expressions to the English lexicon that are still used to this day. Continue reading →