21 Facts About Edmund Gosse

Sir Edmund William Gosse was an English poet, author and critic.

Edmund Gosse was strictly brought up in a small Protestant sect, the Plymouth Brethren, but broke away sharply from that faith.

Edmund Gosse's father was a naturalist and his mother an illustrator who published a number of books of poetry.

Edmund Gosse's childhood was initially happy as they spent their summers in Devon where his father was developing the ideas which gave rise to the craze for the marine aquarium.

Edmund Gosse was sent to a boarding school where he began to develop his own interests in literature.

Related searches

Edmund Gosse's father re-married in 1860 the deeply religious Quaker spinster Eliza Brightwen, whose brother Thomas tried to encourage Edmund to become a banker.

Edmund Gosse later gave an account of his childhood in the book Father and Son which has been described as the first psychological biography.

Edmund Gosse was second cousin of Annie Morgan, of strict Plymouth Brethren upbringing, who married physician Alexander Waugh and was mother of Arthur Waugh and grandmother to the writers Alec Waugh and Evelyn Waugh.

Edmund Gosse started his career as assistant librarian at the British Museum from 1867 alongside the songwriter Theo Marzials, a post which Charles Kingsley helped his father obtain for him.

Edmund Gosse was reviewing Scandinavian literature in a variety of publications.

In 1875 Edmund Gosse became a translator at the Board of Trade, a post which he held until 1904 and gave him time for his writing and enabled him to marry and start a family.

From 1884 to 1890, Edmund Gosse lectured in English literature at Trinity College, Cambridge, despite his own lack of academic qualifications.

Edmund Gosse made a successful American lecture tour in 1884 and was much in demand as a speaker and on committees as well as publishing a string of critical works as well as poetry and histories.

Edmund Gosse became, in the 1880s, one of the most important art critics dealing with sculpture with an interest spurred on by his intimate friendship with the sculptor Hamo Thornycroft.

Edmund Gosse wrote for the Sunday Times, and was an expert on Thomas Gray, William Congreve, John Donne, Jeremy Taylor, and Coventry Patmore.

Edmund Gosse was instrumental in getting official financial support for two struggling Irish writers, WB Yeats in 1910 and James Joyce in 1915.

Edmund Gosse was closely tied to figures such as Algernon Charles Swinburne, John Addington Symonds, and Andre Gide.

Edmund Gosse was the literary editor for the 1911 edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica.

Edmund Gosse married Ellen Epps, a young painter in the Pre-Raphaelite circle, who was the daughter of George Napoleon Epps.

Edmund Gosse's continued to paint and wrote stories and reviews for various publications.

Edmund Gosse was named a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1912.