The Lake Poets

Many books have been written about The Lake Poets - those Romantic geniuses led by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who made their homes in the beautiful north-west corner of England known as The Lake District during the first half of the nineteenth century. Some of these volumes have concentrated on their writing, others on their lives, and yet more have focused on places within the Lake District with which they were associated. Gavin D. Smith's The Lake Poets provides an indispensible 'one-stop shop' for anyone with an interest in the subject, offering biography, selections of work and an exploration of properties with literary associations. Gavin has also chosen to widen the traditional membership of the school of 'Lake Poets' to include William's sister Dorothy Wordsworth, Samuel's son Hartley Coleridge, and Thomas de Quincey. Apart from presenting an overview of The Lake Poets and their work, one aim of this book is to provide an opportunity for readers to discover more about writers like Robert Southey and Hartley Coleridge, who have been neglected in recent years, and whose writing is frequently difficult to find in print.