Horace Walpole (1717-1796)
England

"The world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those who feel."
- Letter to Sir Horace Mann, 1770.

Born of a great prime minister, and educated at Eton and Cambridge, Horace Walpole went through life in comfort and luxury. At Eton, Walpole met Thomas Gray, and formed a lasting friendship with the soon-to-be renowned English poet. After traveling France and Italy, in 1747, he settled at Strawberry Hill, Twickenham. He turned this estate into a Gothic castle filled with manuscripts, books, and artifacts In 1757, he set up a private printing press at his estate. In 1758, Walpole published his first book, Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors. In 1780 he published Anectodes of Painting in England. Walpole's most prestigious and well-known work, The Castle of Otranto, was published in 1764. Before dying in London in 1797, Walpole privately printed The Mysterious Mother and succeeded to the family title of Earl of Orford. Walpole's The Castle of Otranto (1764) officially began the Gothic literature movement. Set in Walpole's very own Strawberry Hill, Otranto thrilled and mystified readers (readers who could no longer stand the stifling principles of reason) with its Gothic setting and its superstitious and supernatural subject matter. What could have inspired such a story in such an age of restraint? Thomas Gray sent Walpole his poem, "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard." Walpole enjoyed it immensely and urged Gray to publish it. In addition, Walpole had a dream in June of 1764. He envisioned a giant armored hand at the top of the staircase of a Gothic castle. When he woke he began to write a novel that would inspire the Romantic movement and begin the English Gothic revival. Otranto would influence two great Gothic writers, Clara Reeve and Ann Radcliffe.

Work
The Castle of Otranto (1764)
Anecdotes of Painting in England (1762-80)
Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors (1758)
The Mysterious Mother (1768)

Sources:

Noyes, Russell. English Romantic Poetry and Prose. New York: Oxford University Press, 1956.