Byron, George ___ 1788-1824 ___ British ___ writer

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Along with his contemporaries, Percy Shelley and John Keats, George Gordon Noel Byron, 6th Baron Byron, was among the most famous of the Romantic poets. He was born in London with a clubfoot, but was taken to live in Scotland by his mother, Catherine Gordon, when young. At the age of 10, he inherited the title, house and grounds of Newstead Abbey from his great-uncle, who had been granted them by Henry VIII. Thereafter, he was educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he formed a close friendship with John Cam Hobhouse. In January 1809, he took his seat in the House of Lords, but then embarked with Hobhouse on a tour of Europe, which included a sojourn in Greece. Byron returned to England in 1811, but failed to reach Newstead before his ailing mother had died. In 1812, his book 'Childe Harold's Pilgrimage' made him a society celebrity and brought him into contact with Lady Caroline Lamb. He married Anne Isabella (Annabella) Milbanke in January 1815, who gave birth to a daughter. Mother and daughter, however, then left Byron, possibly because of Byron's relationship with a half-sister, Augusta Leigh. Much encumbered by debts and guilty feelings, Byron left England never to return. He journeyed to Switzerland and Italy. Newstead Abbey was eventually sold, and Byron was able to pay off debts and support himself in Italy. His life ended in Greece where he had gone to help with the fight for independence. Byron's diaries are fragmentary, but they sparkle with his literary skill. And, of course, they are important for being part of the oeuvre of a great literary figure.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio
The Diary Review - The pleasures of this life

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1813-1814 1816 1821 ___ literary people health Switzerland Italy

WEB TEXT LINKS
Alpine Journals etext
one quote
about

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
British Library, Manuscript Collections - possibly

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
Letters and Journals of Lord Byron
The Alpine Journals of Lord Byron and John Cam Hobhouse
 

May 2005. September 2008, March 2013
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IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.