Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) was born in Ottery St Mary, Devon, the youngest son of a clergyman. He was educated at Christ's Hospital School, London, where he began his friendship with Charles Lamb, and Jesus College Cambridge.

He first met Dorothy and William Wordsworth in 1797, and a close association developed between them, issuing in their groundbreaking joint-publication, Lyrical Ballads, in 1799. Coleridge subsequently settled in the Lake District, and thereafter in London, where he lectured on Shakespeare and published his literary and philosophical theories in the Biographia Literaria (1817).

He died in 1834 having overseen a final edition of his Poetical Works. As poet, philosopher and critic, Coleridge stands as one of the seminal figures of his time.

About the Editor

James Fenton was born in Lincoln and studied psychology and philosophy at Oxford. He has worked as a foreign correspondent and drama critic, and was Oxford Professor of Poetry from 1993 until 1999. His most recent collection of poetry, Out of Danger (1993), was published by Penguin.