Curated playlist
English literary critics
- Virginia WoolfVirginia Woolf's father let her read whatever she liked in his vast library.
- Ben JonsonBen Jonson killed a man in a duel and escaped hanging by reciting a Bible verse.
- Samuel JohnsonSamuel Johnson told his publishers he could write an English dictionary in three years, and it took eight.
- Samuel Taylor ColeridgeSamuel Taylor Coleridge coined the phrase "suspension of disbelief." He also battled opium addiction for years.
- 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.
- A. C. BradleyA 1926 poem imagined Shakespeare failing an exam for not reading his critic. The critic was A. C. Bradley.
- John DrydenHired thugs beat poet John Dryden in a London alley in December 1679.
- Hilary MantelHilary Mantel became the first woman to win the Booker Prize twice. Her winners were Wolf Hall and its sequel.
- G. Wilson KnightG. Wilson Knight directed and acted in Shakespeare's tragedies to test his own ideas.