biography
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1752–70)
|
| biography:
| Poet, born in Bristol, SW England, UK. In 1768 he hoaxed the whole city with a description, ‘from an old manuscript’, of the opening of Bristol Bridge in 1248. His poems, purporting to be by Thomas Rowley, a 15th-c monk, were sent to Horace Walpole, but (though Walpole was taken in) were soon denounced as forgeries. He then went to London, where he wrote many successful stories, essays, and other works. When his patron, Lord Mayor William Beckford, died, his publishers ceased to support him. Starving and penniless, he took poison. The debate over the authenticity of the Rowley poems waged for 80 years, and he received posthumous tributes from many poets including Byron, Keats, and Shelley. His collected works appeared in 1803. |
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