In 1845, he saw the poetry of Elizabeth Barrett and desired to meet her. She was an invalid; he was dominated by her father but it did not prevent Browning from marrying her in 1846. Several days later they ran away to Italy where they lived until her death in 1861. The years between marched their happiest ever and it was demonstrated in her Sonnets from the Portuguese and in his Men and Women, which he dedicated to her. Numerous works followed Elizabeth´s death which became known largely due to public sympathy (Elizabeth was much better known than Browning during their lifetimes). The Ring And the Book (1868-1869) won him considerable recognition. Browning died at the age of 77 on the same day that his final volume of poetry, Asolando, was published. He was buried in Poet´s Corner of Westminster Abbey.


Poe, Edgar Allan    1809-1849

Edgar Allan Poe was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to parents who were struggling actors. By the age of two, Poe was orphaned and went to live with his godfather, John Allen. Poe´s life became filled with troubles at a very young age with his affection towards alcohol which brought shame upon his foster parents, his friends and his fiancé. Trough his early adulthood years, Poe worked for local newspaper writing short stories. Later living with his aunt, Maria Clemm, Poe fell in love with his future wife AND his cousin, Virginia Clemm. In 1847 Virginia died and Poe was once again drawn towards alcoholism and depression. During the rest of his years, Poe fell in love with two more women, but he didn´t, however, marry either of them. At the age of 40, Poe began to drink heavily one night and died because his heart couldn´t take the stress of the excess alcohol. His poetry included The Murders in the Rue Morgue, Purloined Letter, The Raven, and Ulalume, a poem which recalled a lover´s visit to his beloved´s grave.


Arnold, Matthew    1822-1888

Mathew Arnold was born in Laleham, Surrey, England, U.K. and was educated at Oxford. In 1851, Arnold became an inspector for schools and later retired in 1886. Throughout his life, Arnold published numerous poems icluding The Scholar Gipsy, Sohrab and Rustum, Dover Beach, and Thyrsis. His poems were published in Poems: An New Edition (1853-1854), and New Poems (1867). Other works by Arnold include critiques, and a few books of religious nature including Last Essays on Church and Religion (1877). Arnold died at the age of 66.


Hardy, Thomas    1840-1928

Thomas Hardy was born in Upper Bockhampton, Dorset, England and was educated at Dorchester. In 1862, Hardy moved to London and embarked into poetry. Poetry became unsuccessful for Hardy so he turned to writing prose. Success came with his novels Far from the Madding Cow (1874), The Return of the Native (1878), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), Tess of the D´Urbervilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure (1896). With success in prose, Hardy returned to poetry. He then published a few more collections of poetry and died at the age of 88.


Hopkins, Gerard Manley    1844-1889

Gerard Manley Hopkins was born in London, England and was educated at Oxford. After becoming a Catholic in 1866, he began to study priesthood with the Jesuits in North Wales. In 1884, Hopkins became a professor of Greek in Dublin. Throughout his life, Hopkins wrote many poems, but none of them, however, where ever published during his life. Hopkins died at the age of 45.


Housman, A. E.    1859-1936

Alfred Edward Housman was born in Worcestershire (West England) in 1859. He studied at Oxford University but amazingly failed his honors examinations in 1881. Housman took a civil service job but still continued his classical studies independently. He built up his reputation steadily and became an honored poet. The first of his three volumes, A Shropshire Lad, gave Victorian poetry a fresh new face in 1896. Housman became the finest lyric poet since Lord Alfred Tennyson because of his emotional intensity and his simple, yet efficient poetry. In 1911 Housman became a professor at Cambridge University until his death in 1936. In 1922, Housman published another small volume Last Poems. His poems have a rural, pastoral sense to them, favoring an ill-fated "Shropshire lad".


Browning, Elizabeth Barrett    1806-1861

Elizabeth Barret Browning was born in Durham England. In a riding accident in 1821, Browning seriously injured her spine and was left invalid for a long time. Browning´s poems commenced in 1815 and continued in 1838 and 1844. A year after her acquaintaince with Robert Browning, they in 1946. Her most famous work published was Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850). Later in her life, Browning became interested in spiritualism and Italian politics. Browning died at the age of 55.


Rossetti, Dante Gabriel    1828-1882

Dante Gabriel Rossetti was born in London, England and attended the Royal Academy in London. Throughout his life, Rossetti helped establish the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and was a painter and poet. His greatest poetry published was Ballads and Sonnets (1881). Rossetti died at the age of 54.


Brontë, Charlotte    1816 - 1855

Charlotte Brontë was born in Thornton, West Yorkshire, England, U.K. into a well sized family. Two of her four sisters, Maria and Elizabeth, died during childhood while her other two, Anne and Emily, lived to become literary figures as well. Her only brother, Branwell, was a man of many talents, all of which he squandered while drinking to excess. It was the debt that Branwell created that caused Charlotte to leave home and seek employment. In 1835 she returned to Haworth to teach at her old school, Roe Head, but soon gave up the position, as well as two others, in order to pursue her plan to start a school of her own with her two sisters. In order to heighten her teaching qualifications, Charlotte attended the Pensionnat Héger in Brussels along with Emily. Their plans fell through, however, and Charlotte returned to Brussels the following year as an English teacher. Her first novel, The Professor, was published posthumously. Her masterpiece, Jane Eyre, was followed quickly by Shirley and Villette. She married in 1854 to her father´s curate, Arthur Bell Nicholls, and died during pregnancy the following year. Fragments of Emma, a novel she had begun writing, were left behind unfinished. Over one hundred years later, in 1978, two of her stories,The Secret and Lily Hart, were published for the first time ever.


Brontë, Emily    1818-1848

Emily Brontë was born in Thornton, West Yorkshire, England, U.K. into a relatively large family. Two of her four sisters, Maria and Elizabeth, died in childhood while her other two, Charlotte and Anne, lived to become literary figures as well. Her only brother, Branwell, was a man of many talents, all of which were squandered due to his alcoholism. Due to debts caused by Branwell, she and her sisters were forced to leave home to seek employment. Her sister, Charlotte, attended the Pensionnat Héger in Brussels with her in order to augment their qualifications for teaching. Following this both Emily and Charlotte hoped to open their own school with Anne. Their plans, however, fell through. Shortly thereafter Charlotte discovered Emily´s poetry and she reluctantly agreed to a joint publication with her sisters. Poems was thereby published in 1846, signed under the false names Curer, Eliss and Acton Bell. Emily is best remembered for her novel Wuthering Heights. Hardly a novel in structure, it is more like a symbolic prose poem which is considered one of the most original writings in English literature. Wuthering Heights was published a year before her death due to tuberculosis.


Brontë, Anne    1820 - 1849

Anne Brontë was born in Thornton, West Yorkshire, England, U.K. into a well sized family. Two of her four sisters, Maria and Elizabeth, died in childhood while her other two, Charlotte and Emily, lived to become literary figures as well. Her only brother, Branwell, was a man of many talents, all of which were squandered due to his drinking problem. Due to debts caused by Branwell, she, as well as her sisters, were forced to leave home to seek employment. She went on as Governess to the Inghams at Blake Hall in 1839 and to the Robinsons at Thorpe Green, a position she had to leave because of her brother´s infatuation for Mrs. Robinson. Her two novels, Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, were unsuccessful during their time. Anne died at the youthful age of twenty-nine due to tuberculosis.


Meredith, George    1828-1909

George Meredith was born in Portsmouth, Hamsphire, England, and was privately educated in Germany. Meredith returned to London and refused a career in law and chose to become a writter. In 1859, Meredith published The Ordeal of Richard Feverel, which turned out to be unsuccessful. Meredith lived in a poor state until his publication of The Egoist (1879) and Diana of the Crossways (1885). Later works included Modern Love (1862), Evan Harrington (1860), Harry Richmond (1871), Beauchamp´s Career (1875), and Poems and Lyrics of the Joy of Earth (1883). In 1905, Meredith was awarded the Order of Merit and died two years later at age 81.


Rossetti, Christina    1830-1894

Christina Georgina Rossetti was born in London, England, the daughter of Gabriel Rossetti. Throughout her life she was a dedicated Anglican which was strongly exhibited in her poetry including Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862). After becoming invalid in the 1880´s, she continued to write many works, notably A Pageant and Other Poems (1881), and The Face of the Deep (1892). Rossetti died at the age of 64.


Stevenson, Robert Louis    1850-1894

Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland and was educated at Edinburgh University. University gave him a law degree, but he later turned to writing. His first writings included travel sketches, essays and short stories for magazines. In 1883, Stevenson hit fame with his Treasure Island. With his success, Stevenson kept publishing other novels including Kidnapped (1886), The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886), The Master of Ballantrae (1889) and his unfinished posthumous work Weir of Hermiston (1896). Because of health reasons, Stevenson moved to Vailima, Samoa and died six years later at the age of 44.