Poets
Warton the younger, Thomas 1728 - 1790
Reid, Hugh. "Warton, Thomas (1728–1790)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online ed. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. May 2006.Nationality EnglishWarton, Joseph 1722 - 1800
Reid, Hugh. "Warton, Joseph (bap. 1722, d. 1800)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online ed. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. Sept. 2010.Nationality EnglishWatkins, Frances Ellen 1825 - 1911
Frances Ellen Watkins was born September 25, 1825, in Baltimore, Maryland. After receiving an education at her uncle's school, and working in a book store, she turned to publishing. A book of poetry entitled Forest leaves came out in 1845, no copy of which has survived. Five years later, Watkins left Maryland for Ohio to teach at Union Seminary near Columbus and then in 1852 at Little York, Pennsylvania. In 1854 her… Read more
Nationality AmericanWatson, Albert Durrant 1859 - 1926
Barr, Debra, and Walter Meyer zu Erpen. "Albert Durrant Watson," in Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. XV. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005. 1058-59. Watson, Albert Durrant. Dream of God: A Poem. Toronto: Banner Press, 1922. --. Heart of the Hills. Toronto: McClelland, Goodchild, and Stewart, 1917. Internet Archive. --. Love and the Universe: The Immortals, and Other Poems. Toronto: Macmillan,… Read moreNationality CanadianWatts, Isaac 1674 - 1748
A nonconformist, Watts was born in Southampton and after a relatively brief career as tutor, writer of a 1714 textbook on logic and the conduct of life used at Oxford, and minister of an independent congregation in Mark Lane, London, he retired in 1712 owing to illness and lived for many years as guest of Sir Thomas Abney at his estate Theobalds in Hertsfordshire. Watts' Divine Songs for the Use of Children, published… Read more
Nationality EnglishWeatherly, Frederick Edward 1848 - 1929
Pickles, John D. "Weatherly, Frederic Edward (1848–1929)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Online ed. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. Oxford: OUP, 2004.Nationality EnglishWebb, Mary 1881 - 1927
Coles, Gladys Mary. "Profile." Literary Heritage West Midlands. --. "Webb, Mary Gladys (1881–1927)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Online ed. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. Oxford: OUP, 2004.Nationality EnglishWebster, Augusta (Davies) 1837 - 1894
PseudonymHome, CecilBorn at Poole, Dorset, on January 30, 1837, as Julia Augusta Davies, Augusta Webster spent her young years on the ship Griper, stationed at such places as Banff Castle and Penzance, and then in 1851, at Cambridge. Her education was informal but she studied at the Cambridge School of Art. Thomas Webster and Augusta, who had published a volume of poems in 1860 under a nom-de-plume, Cecil Home, wed in December 1863. A… Read more
Nationality EnglishWebster, John 1580 - 1632
Gunby, David. "Webster, John (1578x80–1638?)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Online ed. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. Oxford: OUP, 2004.Nationality EnglishWeelkes, Thomas 1576 - 1623
Brown, David. "Weelkes, Thomas (bap. 1576?, d. 1623)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Online ed. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. Oxford: OUP, 2004.Nationality EnglishWeir, Robert Stanley 1856 - 1926
"Robert Stanley Weir (1856-1926) was born in Hamilton, in what was then Canada West. He took all his higher education in Montreal, and was qualified for both teaching and the law. He chose law and rose rapidly in the profession, becoming in due course, like Routhier, a judge first as Recorder of the City of Montréal and later to the Exchequer Court of Canada (now the Federal Court of Canada). He wrote both learned… Read more
Nationality CanadianWesley, Charles 1707 - 1788
Rack, Henry D. "Wesley, Charles (1707–1788)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online ed. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. Oct. 2005.Nationality EnglishWesley, John 1703 - 1791
Rack, Henry D. "Wesley , John (1703–1791)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online ed. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. May 2009.Nationality EnglishWetherald, Ethelwyn 1857 - 1940
PseudonymThistlethwaite, BelMacPhee, Dianne. "Wetherald, Agnes Ethelwyn (1857-1940)." Literature Online. The Electronic Text Centre at the University of New Brunswick Libraries. Wetherald, Ethelwyn. The House of the Trees and Other Poems. Toronto: William Briggs, 1895. Internet Archive. --. The Last Robin: Lyrics and Sonnets. Toronto: William Briggs, 1907. Internet Archive. --. Poems, Lyrics, and Sonnets. Toronto: Musson, 191?. --.… Read moreNationality Canadian- Beadle, Richard. "Wever, R. (fl. 1550)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Online ed. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. Oxford: OUP, 2004.Nationality English
Wheatley, Phillis 1753 - 1784
As a child slave, Phillis Wheatley was shipped on the Phillis to Boston from West Africa, possibly the Gambia river region, on July 11, 1761, when she was about 7-8 years of age. Susanna Wheatley, a Christian and wife of merchant John Wheatley, purchased her. Taught by Susanna's daughter Mary, Phillis began writing by 1765. She first published a poem in a newspaper in 1767 at about 14 years old. The second time she… Read more
Nationality AmericanWhite, Gilbert 1720 - 1793
The 1813 edition of White's Selborne (viii-ix) gives the following biography: GILBERT WHITE was the eldest son of John White of Selborne, Esq. and of Anne the daughter of Thomas Holt, rector of Streatham in Surry. He was born at Selborne on July 18, 1720; and received his school-education at Basingstoke, under the Rev. Thomas Warton, vicar of that place, and father of those two distinguished literary characters, Dr.… Read more
Nationality EnglishWhite, Joseph Blanco 1775 - 1841
Murphy, G. Martin. "White, Joseph Blanco (1775–1841)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online ed. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. Oct. 2005.Nationality EnglishWhitefield, George 1714 - 1770
Schlenther, Boyd Stanley. "Whitefield, George (1714–1770)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004.Nationality EnglishWhitehead, Paul 1710 - 1774
Sambrook, James. "Whitehead, Paul (1710-1774)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford University Press, 2004.
Nationality EnglishWhitfield, James Monroe 1822 - 1871
Whitfield, James Munroe. America and Other Poems. Buffalo: James S. Leavitt, 1853. Internet Archive --. Poems. 1846.Nationality African AmericanWhitman, Walt 1819 - 1892
Born in Huntington, Long Island, on May 31, 1819, and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Walt Whitman was the second eldest of nine children. Out of school as early as 13, he soon started work as a typesetter, from 1836 to 1841 taught in schools, and thereafter worked as a journalist with many newspapers and magazines, becoming editor of the Democratic Brooklyn Eagle 1846-48 and of the Brooklyn Times 1857-59. His greatest… Read more
Nationality AmericanWhitney, Adeline Dutton Train 1824 - 1906
Nationality AmericanVery little is known of Isabella Whitney's life, other than what she says in her poems. She was a sister of Geoffrey Whitney, who came of a Cheshire family. Having published two volumes of non-religious verse, she is the first secular woman poet in England.
Travitsky, Betty S. "Whitney, Isabella (fl. 1566–1573)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Online ed. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. Oxford: OUP, 2004.… Read moreNationality EnglishWhittier, John Greenleaf 1807 - 1892
Born December 17, 1807, in Haverhill, Massachusetts, John Greenleaf Whittier, inspired by reading Robert Burns, wrote and published poems in local journals beginning in 1826. After a two-year education at Haverhill Academy, Whittier embarked on a lifelong career of journalism, editing one newspaper after another. A committed abolitionist, and a delegate to the first Anti-Slavery Convention in 1833, he won election to… Read more
Nationality AmericanWilbye, John 1574 - 1638
Brown, David. "Wilbye, John (bap. 1574, d. 1638)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Online ed. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. Oxford: OUP, 2004.Nationality EnglishWilcox, Ella Wheeler 1850 - 1919
Ella Wheeler, poet, novelist, and spiritualist, born November 5, 1850, in Johnstown Center, Wisconsin, was educated at home and at the University of Wisconsin. For a quarter-century from her first volume of pro-temperance poems, Drops of Water (1872), she wrote sentimentally and prolifically about the conventional family, where the man earns the living and the woman stays at home and bears children. Her works proved… Read more
Nationality AmericanWilde, Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills 1854 - 1900
Edwards, Owen Dudley. "Wilde, Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills (1854–1900)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online ed. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. Jan. 2010.Nationality IrishWilliams, Ian 1979 -
Ian Williams completed his Ph.D. in English at the University of Toronto and works as an English professor. He has held fellowships or residencies from Vermont Studio Center, Cave Canem, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, and Palazzo Rinaldi in Italy.
Williams is the author of Personals, shortlisted for the 2013 Griffin Poetry Prize and the Robert Kroetsch Poetry Book Award; Not Anyone's Anything… Read more
Nationality CanadianWilliams, Julia 1976 -
Williams, Julia. My City is Ancient and Famous. Ottawa: Above/Ground Press, 2004. PS8645 .I445 S56 2004 Robarts Library --. My Family is a Genius: Sprawl. Calgary: Addition Editions, 2002. --. The Sink House. Toronto: Coach House Books, 2004. PS8645 .I445 S56 2004 Robarts LibraryNationality CanadianWilliams, William Carlos 1883 - 1963
William Carlos Williams served as a physician in his home town of Rutherford, New Jersey, from 1910 to 1951, and in hours after work wrote fiction, poetry, plays, and criticism. He was born on September 17, 1883, in Rutherford, educated at Horace Mann School in New York, and from 1902 until 1906 studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, where he met Ezra Pound and Hilda Doolittle. He interned at the French… Read more
Nationality AmericanWillis, Nathaniel Parker 1806 - 1867
Evelev, John. "Willis, Nathaniel Parker." American National Biography Online. American Council of Learned Societies: Oxford University Press, 2000.Nationality AmericanWilmot, earl of Rochester, John 1647 - 1680
PseudonymRochester, earl of,"As late as 1953 it was impossible to publish Rochester's 'The Imperfect Enjoyment' and 'A ramble in St. James's Park' (Poems, xlix). And even after Judge John W. Woolsey's landmark decision in the Ulysses case in December 1933 'A ramble in St. James's Park' could still be called 'this unprintable poem' (Berman, 362) in 1964." (Ellis, citing R. Berman, 'Rochester and the defeat of the senses,' Kenyon Review 26 [Spring… Read more
Nationality EnglishWilson, Woodrow 1856 - 1924
Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States (1913-21), founder of the Société des Nations (the League of Nations), and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919.
Nationality AmericanWinner, Septimus 1827 - 1902
PseudonymHawthorne, Alice, Guyer, Percy, Street, Apsley, Stenton, PaulTubb, Benjamin Robert. "The Music of Septimus Winner". Public Domain Music. 12 Feb 2009. Public Domain Music. 4 Aug 2009 . Wepman, Dennis. "Winner, Septimus." American National Biography Online. American Council of Learned Societies: Oxford University Press, 2000. Winner, Septimus. Cogitations of a Crank at Three Score Years and Ten. Edited and published by William C. Claghorn, 1903.Nationality AmericanWither, George 1588 - 1667
O'Callaghan, Michelle. "Wither, George (1588–1667)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Online ed. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. Oxford: OUP, 2004.Nationality EnglishWolfe, Charles 1791 - 1823
Edwards, Jason. "Wolfe, Charles (1791–1823)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online ed. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. Jan. 2011.Nationality EnglishWolfe, Humbert 1885 - 1940
Bagguley, Philip. "Wolfe, Humbert (1885–1940)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Online ed. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. Oxford: OUP, 2011.Nationality EnglishWoodrow, Constance 1899 - 1937
Constance Woodrow (1899-1937), née Davies, was born in
England but lived in Canada most of her life. She worked in Toronto
in its most respected bookstore, Britnell's, formerly just north of Bloor
on Yonge Street. Letters of Charles G. D. Roberts to Woodrow survive in the University of New Brunswick archives (series 1, box 1, files 38-39). Woodrow brought out two volumes of verse,
The Captive Gypsy (… Read moreNationality CanadianWordsworth, William 1770 - 1850
Gill, Stephen. "Wordsworth, William (1770–1850)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online ed. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. May 2010.Nationality EnglishWork, Henry Clay 1832 - 1884
Henry Clay Work, born on October 1, 1832, grew up in Middletown, Connecticut, the son of an active opponent of slavery, who helped thousands of slaves to escape north. Work took employment as a printer in Chicago in 1854, but in 1853, 1876-77, and 1882-83, Work wrote 75 songs, at first encouraged by the minstrel E. P. Christy, and then under contract to Root and Cady, music publishers. His only equals as composers of… Read more
Nationality AmericanWotton, Sir Henry 1568 - 1639
Loomie, A. J. "Wotton, Sir Henry (1568–1639)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Online ed. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. Oxford: OUP, 2004.Nationality EnglishWratislaw, Theodore William Graf 1871 - 1933
Thornton, R. K. R. "Wratislaw, Theodore William Graf (1871-1933)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004.Nationality EnglishWright, David McKee 1869 - 1928
Bertram Stevens in 1906 gives this biographical summary:
Born in Co. Down, Ireland, 6th August, 1869; son of Rev. W. Wright, author of "The Brontes in Ireland", etc. Arrived in New Zealand, 1887. Entered Congregational Ministry, 1898. Now stationed at Nelson, N.Z.
Wright published four volumes of poetry and went on to edit the poems of Henry Lawson.
An Anthology of Australian Verse. Ed. Bertram… Read moreNationality AustralianWright, Elizur 1804 - 1885
Goodheart, Lawrence B. "Wright, Elizur." American National Biography Online. American Council of Learned Societies: Oxford University Press, 2000.Nationality AmericanWyatt, Sir Thomas 1503 - 1542
Sir Thomas Wyatt was born at Allington Castle, Kent, in 1503, the son of Henry Wyatt and Anne Skinner. He was educated at St. John's College Cambridge, become a diplomat in the service of Henry VIII about 1526 and travelled to Italy first in 1527. After a brief imprisonment for his affair with Anne Boleyn in 1536, the king's second wife who was executed for treason, Wyatt went to Spain as English ambassador to Charles… Read more
Nationality EnglishWylie, Elinor 1885 - 1928
Fredericksen, Elaine. "Wylie, Elinor." American National Biography Online. American Council of Learned Societies: Oxford University Press, 2000. Gray, Thomas A. Elinor Wylie. New York: Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1969.Nationality AmericanYeats, William Butler 1865 - 1939
All works by W. B. Yeats, although briefly out of copyright in the 1990s, re-entered copyright since then and can only be published by permission of the publishers or the poet's estate.
For a brief biography of the poet, see the Nobel Foundation Web site and
Foster, R. F. "Yeats, William Butler (1865–1939)."Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP,… Read moreNationality IrishYoung, Edward 1683 - 1765
May, James E. "Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Online ed. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. Oxford: OUP, 2004.Nationality EnglishYule, Pamelia Sarah 1826 - 1897
PseudonymEmillia, , Xenette,Whiteman, Bruce. "Vining, Pamelia Sarah (Yule)," Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online.
2000. Yule, Pamelia C. Poems of the Heart and Home. Toronto: Bengough, Moore, 1881.Nationality Canadian