Curated playlist
English essayists
- George OrwellGeorge Orwell was a pen name, chosen from a shortlist in 1932. He was born Eric Arthur Blair in British India.
- Virginia WoolfVirginia Woolf's father let her read whatever she liked in his vast library.
- Alexander PopeAfter The Dunciad angered his targets, poet Alexander Pope carried pistols on walks.
- John MiltonJohn Milton sold Paradise Lost for five pounds. The blind poet handed it to a publisher in April 1667.
- Samuel JohnsonSamuel Johnson told his publishers he could write an English dictionary in three years, and it took eight.
- W. H. AudenW. H. Auden died hours after reading his poems aloud in a Vienna hotel.
- James Wood (critic)Harold Bloom praised critic James Wood in 1999, then said in 2008 that Wood simply does not exist.
- Mary WollstonecraftMary Wollstonecraft died eleven days after giving birth to the daughter who would write Frankenstein.
- Arthur C. ClarkeArthur C. Clarke never patented his satellite idea. He called a patent "a licence to be sued."
- Daniel DefoeDaniel Defoe stood in a pillory in 1703 for a pamphlet. Years later he wrote Robinson Crusoe.
- Francis BaconFrancis Bacon may have died after stuffing a hen with snow. He wanted to test if cold could preserve meat like salt.
- Thomas Robert MalthusThomas Malthus argued that population always grows faster than the food supply.
- John DrydenHired thugs beat poet John Dryden in a London alley in December 1679.
- Edward GibbonEdward Gibbon said commanding militia grenadiers helped him understand the Roman legion.
- John AubreyWhile riding across Wiltshire in 1649, John Aubrey came upon the stones of Avebury. He later guided Charles II there.
- Jane Ellen HarrisonA lecture on Athenian gravestones in Glasgow drew 1,600 people. The speaker was classicist Jane Ellen Harrison.