Gray, Thomas ___ 1716-1771 ___ British ___ poet

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Gray was born in London, and lived with his mother after she left his abusive father. He was educated at Eton College and Cambridge. Together with Horace Walpole he embarked on the Grand Tour, but the two fell out and Gray returned to Britain in 1741. He continued studying at Cambridge, where he remained for most of his life, studying Greek, and writing. In 1768, he was made professor of history and modern languages, although, apparently, he did very little teaching. His first important poems were written the year after his return from the Continent, but he didn't finish his celebrated 'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard' until 1751. Having been reconciled with Walpole, the latter published Gray's 'The Progress of Poesy' and 'The Bard'. In 1757, Gray was offered, but refused, the post of Poet Laureate. Although never a committed diarist, there are fragments of diaries kept, mostly, when he was travelling.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio
The Diary Review - Touring the Lake District

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1739 1755 1765 1769 ___ travel archaeology nature France Italy

WEB TEXT LINKS
good extracts
about
etext

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
British Library, Manuscript Collections - possibly

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
Thomas Gray's journal of his visit to the Lake District in October 1769
 

December 2005, June 2008, April 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.