Who was W.S. Landor?
Poet and writer of imaginary conversations between
historical personages.
Date and Place of Birth:
30th January 1775, Ipsley Court, Warwick, Warwickshire,
England. Christened Walter Savage Landor.
Family Background:
Son of a Doctor and a wealthy mother.
Education:
Rugby School from which he was removed for being
insolent. Trinity College, Oxford University from which he was suspended
for firing a shotgun in his rooms. Started a lifelong friendship
with the poet and author Robert Southey.
Chronology/Biography of
Walter Savage Landor:
1805: Inherited
the family property of Ipsley Court and sold it to buy Llanthony
Abbey in Wales
1808: Fought as
a volunteer in Spain in the war of liberation against Napoleon using
his family's wealth to subsidise his campaign.
1811: He went into
exile in Italy after being sued for libel.
1824: Whilst in
Florence he was also threatened with expulsion for being insulting
to the local police force and for writing anti-Italian material
in his work "Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen."
1834: Quarreled
with and left his wife and four children and returned to England
to live in Bath.
1836: Wrote "Pericles
and Aspasia". a series of imaginary letters conjuring up Ancient
Athens. Charles Dickens was to
base his character of Boythorn in "Bleak House" on Landor.
1837: Publication
of "The Pentameron and Pentalogia" a dialogue between
Petrarch and Bocaccio.
1853: Publication
of "Imaginary Conversations of Greeks and Romans".
1858: Once again
left for Italy after being threatened with a libel case after writing
some satirical verse "Dry Sticks, Fagoted". Eventually
arrived in Florence to stay with Elizabeth and Robert Browning
His poems written to Elizabeth were not to be published until 1917.
Written Works:
- 1795:
"Poems".
- 1798:
"Gebir".
- 1802:
"Poetry by the Author of Gebir".
- 1812:
"Count Julian: A Tragedy".
- 1824:
"Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen. Vols
1-2".
- 1828:
"Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen. Vols
3-4".
- 1829:
"Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen. Vol
5".
- 1834: "Examination
of Shakespeare"
- 1836: "Pericles
and Aspasia".
- 1837:
"Literary Hours". "Pentameron".
- 1839:
"Andrea of Hungary". "Giovanna of Naples".
- 1840:
"Fra Rupert".
- 1847:
"The Hellenics, Enlarged and Completed". "Poemata
et Inscriptiones"
- 1848: "Imaginary
Conversation of King Carlo-Alberto and the Duchess of Belloioso".
- 1853:
"Last Fruit off an Old Tree".
- 1863:
"Heroic Idylls".
Marriage:
1811 to Julia Thuiller a 17 year old.
Places of Interest:
WARWICKSHIRE:
Commemorative plaque inside Bishop's Tachbrook
Church.
WALES:
Llanthony Abbey
Date and Place of Death:
17th September 1864, Florence, Italy
Age at Death:
89.
Site of Grave:
Buried at the Porta a Pinta Cemetery, (known
as the "English Cemetery") Florence, Italy.
Further Inormation:
Landor Society
c/o Jean Field
11 Watesfield Gardens
Sydenham
Lamy
Warks
CV31 1NT
