Lit Help Needed—Who Was This Poet?

[Eve]

His name escapes me, but I wanted to see if anyone had ever written a bio of him.

he was a British teenager, in (I believe) the early 1800s. He arrived in London and purported to have either written or translated some Great Poetry. He was found to be a fraud and killed himself while still young, thereby becoming a great Hero to the Romantics.

Can NOT recalls his name . . . Any clues?

[Johanna]

Thomas Chatterton.

[Johanna]

The tragedy of it is that Chaterton (1752-1770) could have earned recognition as a minor poet in his own write, if he hadn't tried to pull off the fraud of "translating" the supposed works of a fictious fifteenth-century monk he called "Thomas Rowley."

His suicide (by arsenic) at the age of 18 seems to have been brought on by the death of his patron and his despair at getting another patron.

Chatterton is usually mentioned in tandem with the other famous literary fraud of the mid-18th century: James MacPherson (1736-1796), who acheived far more notoriety, and for a limited time, actual success with his purported "translations" from the ancient Celtic bard Ossian.

[Eve]

THANK you, Jo'! I knew it was "something-ton," but couldn't remember what. Now to dive into Amazon and Bookfinder, and see if there's any good bio of him I can laze about with, the wind blowing through my raven-black tresses.

By the way, any of you read "Bosie," that new bio of Lord Alfred Douglas, written by some six-year-old? Just took it out of the library and wonder if it's any good.

[Ukulele Ike]

Here's a link to the famous Victorian death-portait!

http://www.hol.gr/cjackson/w/p-wallis1.htm


-- That Morbid Fellow, Ukulele Ike

[Eve]

Oh, thanks, Ike! Gotta get a print of that to put on my bulletin board,right next to my "dead girl on car" photo.

I like to keep my coworkers nervous . . .