A Short Biographical Dictionary of English LiteratureCousin, John W. (John William)
General
A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature
Cousin, John W. (John William)
American literature -- Bio-bibliography; English literature -- Bio-bibliography
KAVANAGH, JULIA (1824-1877).--Novelist, _dau._ of Morgan K., poet, and
philologist, wrote many novels, of which the scene is usually in France,
among which are _Madeleine_ (1848), _Adèle_, and _Daisy Burns_; also
biographical works, _Woman in France in the 18th Century_ (1850), etc.
KAYE, SIR JOHN WILLIAM (1814-1876).--Historian and biographer, _s._ of a
London solicitor, was _ed._ at Eton and Addiscombe. After serving for
some time in the Bengal Artillery, he succeeded J.S. Mill as sec. to the
political and secret department in the East India Office. His first
literary work was a novel _pub._ in 1845, and he then began his valuable
series of histories and biographies illustrative of the British
occupation of India, including _The War in Afghanistan_ (1851), and _The
Sepoy War in India_, which he did not live to finish, and which was
completed by G.B. Malleson as _The History of the Indian Mutiny_ (6
vols., 1890); also histories of the East India Company and of
Christianity in India, and Lives of Sir John Malcolm and other Indian
soldiers and statesmen. All his writings are characterised by painstaking
research, love of truth, and a style suited to the importance of his
subjects. He was made K.C.S.I. in 1871.
KEARY, ANNIE (1825-1879).--Novelist, wrote some good novels, including
_Castle Daly_, _A Doubting Heart_, and _Oldbury_, also books for children
and educational works.
KEATS, JOHN (1795-1821).--Poet, _s._ of the chief servant at an inn in
London, who _m._ his master's _dau._, and _d._ a man of some substance.
He was sent to a school at Enfield, and having meanwhile become an
orphan, was in 1810 apprenticed to a surgeon at Edmonton. In 1815 he went
to London to walk the hospitals. He was not, however, at all enthusiastic
in his profession, and having become acquainted with Leigh Hunt, Hazlitt,
Shelley, and others, he gave himself more and more to literature. His
first work--some sonnets--appeared in Hunt's _Examiner_, and his first
book, _Poems_, came out in 1817. This book, while containing much that
gave little promise of what was to come, was not without touches of
beauty and music, but it fell quite flat, finding few readers beyond his
immediate circle. _Endymion_, begun during a visit to the Isle of Wight,
appeared in 1818, and was savagely attacked in _Blackwood_ and the
_Quarterly Review_. These attacks, though naturally giving pain to the
poet, were not, as was alleged at the time, the cause of his health
breaking down, as he was possessed of considerable confidence in his own
powers, and his claim to immortality as a poet. Symptoms of hereditary
consumption, however, began to show themselves and, in the hope of
restored health, he made a tour in the Lakes and Scotland, from which he
returned to London none the better. The death soon after of his brother
Thomas, whom he had helped to nurse, told upon his spirits, as did also
his unrequited passion for Miss Fanny Brawne. In 1820 he _pub._ _Lamia
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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