Walter Savage Landor

The son of a wealthy physician, Walter Savage Landor studied at Rugby and Trinity College, Oxford (1793) where resided a year before being rusticated. After publishing his first volume of poems in 1795 he spent most of the next twenty years living in Wales. In 1808 Landor served as a volunteer in Spain during the Napoleonic wars; in 1814 he departed for Italy where, still courting controversy, he lived for most of the remainder of his long life.

TEXT RECORDS:

1810[Letter to Robert Southey on Spenser.]
1824Imaginary Conversations: Queen Elizabeth and Cecil.
1826Imaginary Conversations: Johnson and Tooke. Second Conversation.
1828[Elegy for John Keats.]

PUBLICATIONS:

Poems. 1795.
Moral epistle respectfully dedicated to Earl Stanhope. 1795.
To the burgesses of Warwick. 1797.
Gebir: a poem in seven books. 1798.
Poems from the Arabic and Persion with notes. 1800.
Poetry by the author of Gebir. 1800.
Iambi incerto auctore. 1802?
Simonidea. 1806.
Three letters written in Spain. 1809.
Ode ad Gustavum regem; ode ad Gustavum exulem. 1810.
Count Julian: a tragedy.
Commentary on memoirs of Mr Fox. 1812.
Letters addressed to Lord Liverpool. 1814.
Letter from Mr Landor to Mr Jervis. 1814.
Idyllia nova quinque heroum atque heroidum. 1815.
Poche osservazinoni sullo stato attuale di que' populi. 1821.
Imaginary conversations of literary men and statesmen. 1824, 1826, 1828, 1829.
Gebir, Count Julian, and other poems. 1831.
Citation and examination of William Shakspeare. 1834.
Pericles and Aspasia. 2 vols, 1836.
The letters of a conservative. 1836.
Terry Hogan: an eclogue. 1836.
A satire on satirists and admonition to detractors. 1836.
Literary hours by various friends. 1837.
The pentarmeron and pentalogia. 1837.
Andrea of Hungary and Giovanna of Naples. 1839.
Fra Rupert. 1840.
To Robert Browning. 1845.
The works of Landor. 2 vols, 1846.
The hellenics enlarged and completed. 1847.
Poemata et inscriptiones. 1847.
The Italics of Landor. 1848.
Savagius Landor Lamartino. 1848?
Imaginary conversation of King Carlo-Alberto and the Cuchess Belgioiso on the affairs and prospects of Italy. 1848.
Carmen ad heroianam. 1848?
Epistola ad Pium IX. 1849.
Epistola ad Romanos. 1849.
Ad Cossuthum et Bemum. 1849.
Statement of occurences at Llandbedr. 1849.
Popery, British and foreign. 1851.
On Kossuth's voyage to America. 1851.
Tyrranicide. 1851.
Imaginary conversations of Greeks and Romans. 1853.
The last fruit of an old tree. 1853.
Letters of an American mainly on Russia and revolution. 1854.
Antony and Octavius: scenes for the study. 1856.
Letter from Landor to R. W. Emerson. 1856.
Landor and the Honorable Mrs Yescombe. 1857.
Mr Landor threatened. 1857.
Dry sticks from Landor. 1858.
Mr Landor's remarks on a suit. 1858.
Savonarola e il priore di San Marco. 1860.
Heroic idyls with additional poems. 1863.
Works, ed. John Forster. 8 vols, 1876.
Letters, ed. Stephen Wheeler. 1899.
Works, ed. T. E. Welby and S. Wheeler. 16 vols, 1927.
Poems, ed. T. E. Welby and S. Wheeler. 3 vols, 1937.
Landor as Critic, ed. by Charles L. Proudfit. 1979.

PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:

English
Anglican

Rugby School
Trinity College Oxford

military
poet
essayist
dramatist

The Courier
The Athenaeum
Blackwood's Magazine
The Keepsake
Book of Beauty

Rev. William Benwell
Rev. Henry Francis Cary
Joseph Cottle
John F. M. Dovaston
Margaret Holford
Leigh Hunt
Anna Brownell Jameson
William Meyler
Sir James Mackintosh
Mary Russell Mitford
Samuel Parr
Robert Southey

REFERENCE:

DNB; NCBEL; CBEL (3rd ed); DLB.

Dictionary of Living Authors (1816); J. C. Hare, "On Landor's Imaginary Conversations" London Magazine 9 (May 1824) 523-41; Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); "Landor's Poems" Fraser's Magazine 3 (July 1831) 736-44; Allan Cunningham, "Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (16 November 1833) 772; S. C. Hall, in The Book of Gems (1838); Robert Chambers, Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844); R. H. Horne, in New Spirit of the Age (1844); George Gilfillan, in Gallery of Literary Portraits (1845); William Howitt, Homes and Haunts of the ... British Poets (1847); David Macbeth Moir, Poetical Literature of the Past Half-Century (1851; 1856) 99-100; Mary Russell Mitford, "Poetry that Poets Love" in Recollections (1852) 304-21; Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); Illustrated London News 45 (1864) 385-86; obituary in Gentleman's Magazine 217 (December 1864) 791-92; John Forster, Landor: a Biography 2 vols (1869); Frederick Denison Maurice, "Walter Savage Landor and Henry Crabb Robinson" Macmillan's Magazine 20 (1869); The English Poets, ed. Thomas Humphry Ward (1880); Sidney Colvin, Walter Savage Landor (1881); Margaret Oliphant, in Literary History of England (1882); Foster, Alumni Oxon (1887-91); Edward Waterman Evans, Jr., Walter Savage Landor. A Critical Study (1892); Frederic Boase, Modern English Biography (1892-1921); Francis Thompson, "Landor" Academy (27 February 1897) 258-259; Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05); Thomas James Wise and Stephen Wheeler, A Bibliography of the Writings in Prose and Verse of Walter Savage Landor (1919); Stanley T. Williams, "Walter Savage Landor as a Critic of Literature" PMLA 38 (December 1923) 906-928; Felice Elkin, Walter Savage Landor's Studies of Italian Life and Literature (1934); R. H. Super, "The Publication of Landor's Early Works" PMLA 63 (June 1948) 577-603; R. H. Super, Landor: a Biography (1954); R. H. Super, The Publication of Landor's Works (1954); Malcolm Elwin, Landor: A Replevin (1958); Robert Pinsky, Landor's Poetry (1968); Renwick, OHEL (1963); Jack, OHEL (1963); Ernest Dilworth, Landor (1971).

COMMENTARY RECORDS
for Walter Savage Landor:

1.	1801  Alexander Thomson, in The British Parnassus, at the Close of the Eighteenth Century (1801) 34-35 & n.
2.	1802  Anna Seward to Henry John Todd, 11 June 1802; Letters, ed. Scott (1811) 6:29.
3.	1802  Anonymous, Review of Poetry. By the Author of Gebir; Anti-Jacobin Review 13 (November 1802) 307.
4.	1805  Anonymous, Review of Landor, Gebir, 2d edition; Poetical Register and Repository of Fugitive Poetry for 1803 (1805) 452.
5.	1808  Robert Southey to G. C. Bedford, 26 April 1808; Life and Correspondence (1849-50) 3:138.
6.	1814  Leigh Hunt, in Feast of the Poets (1814) 118n.
7.	1820  Thomas Love Peacock to Percy Bysshe Shelley, 4 December 1820; in T. L. Peacock, ed. Richard Garnett (1910) 89.
8.	1824  William Wordsowrth to Walter Savage Landor, December 1824; Forster, Landor, a Biography (1869) 365-66.
9.	1824  Anonymous, "Ode on the Publication of the Noble Work of W. S. Landor" The Examiner (13 June 1824) 376.
10.	1824  William Hazlitt, in Review of Landor, Imaginary Conversations; Edinburgh Review 40 (March 1824) 67-80.
11.	1828  Leigh Hunt, in Lord Byron and Some of his Contemporaries (1828) 496-98.
12.	1833  Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (16 November 1833) 772.
13.	1834  Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1 January 1834; Table Talk (1884) 268.
14.	1841  Caroline Bowles Southey, 1841; Forster, Landor, a Biography (1869) 558-59.
15.	1843  William Wordsworth, 1843; Prose, ed. Grosart (1876) 3:146.
16.	1845  George Gilfillan, "Walter Savage Landor" Gallery of Literary Portraits (1845) 232-37.
17.	1851  David Macbeth Moir, in Sketches of the Poetical Literature of the Past Half-Century (1851; 1852) 99-100.
18.	1852  Mary Russell Mitford, in "Poetry that Poets Love. Walter Savage Landor — Leigh Hunt — Percy Bysshe Shelley — John Keats" Recollections of a Literary Life; or Books, Places, and People (1852) 304-08.
19.	1871  S. C. Hall, "Walter Savage Landor" in A Book of Memories: Great Men and Women of the Age, from personal Acquaintance (1871) 208-12.
20.	1872  James T. Fields, in Yesterdays with Authors (1872; 1900) 370-72.
21.	1873  Joseph Devey, "Classical School. Walter Savage Landor" A Comparative View of Modern English Poets (1873) 166-83.
22.	1880  Richard Monckton Milnes, in The English Poets: Selections with Critical Introductions, ed. Thomas Humphry Ward (1880) 4:465-72.
23.	1882  Epes Sargent, in Harper's Cyclopaedia of British and American Poetry (1882) 328-29.
24.	1897  Edward Dowden, in The French Revolution and English Literature (1897) 259.

BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for Walter Savage Landor:

1.	1816  Anonymous, in Biographical Dictionary of Living Authors (1816) 195.
2.	1838  S. C. Hall, in The Book of Gems. The Modern Poets and Artists of Great Britain (1838) 198.
3.	1844  R. H. Horne, "Walter Savage Landor" New Spirit of the Age (1844, 2d edition) 1:153-76.
4.	1844  Robert Chambers, in Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844; 1850) 2:350-51.
5.	1847  William Howitt, "Walter Savage Landor" Homes and Haunts of the Most Eminent British Poets (1847) 2:323-46.
6.	1864  Harriet Martineau, Obituary in The Daily News (1864); Martineau, Biographical Sketches (1869) 121-29.
7.	1864  Anonymous, Obituary in Gentleman's Magazine 217 (December 1864) 791-92.
8.	1876  Robert Carruthers, in Chambers's Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844; 1879) 5:181-85.

AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)

1.	1795  Rev. Samuel Croxall:   Walter Savage Landor, Note in Landor, Poems (1795) 158n.
2.	1795  Rev. Henry Kett:   Walter Savage Landor, "To the Author of Bampton Lectures and Juvenile Poems," Landor, Poems (1795) 133.
3.	1795  Rev. Joseph Warton:   Walter Savage Landor, "To Dr. Warton" Poems (1795) 130-32.
4.	1805  Rev. William Herbert:   Walter Savage Landor to Walter Birch, April 1805; Forster, Landor, a Biography (1869) 113-14.
5.	1805  James Thomson:   Walter Savage Landor to Walter Birch, 1805; Forster, Landor, a Biography (1869) 47-48.
6.	1809  Sir William Jones:   Walter Savage Landor to Robert Southey, 26 November 1809; Forster, Landor, a Biography (1869) 152.
7.	1810  Margaret Holford:   Walter Savage Landor to Margaret Holford, 1809 ca.; Forster, Landor, a Biography (1869) 194.
8.	1811  Michael Drayton:   Walter Savage Landor to Robert Southey, 1811; John Forster, Landor, a Biography (1869) 13-14.
9.	1811  Anna Seward:   Walter Savage Landor to Robert Southey, 1811; Forster, Landor, a Biography (1869) 47-48.
10.	1828  Robert Burns:   Walter Savage Landor, in "Landor, English Visitor, and Florentine Visitor," Imaginary Conversations (1828) 3:433-52.
11.	1828  Lord Byron:   Walter Savage Landor, in "Landor, English Visitor, and Florentine Visitor" Imaginary Conversations (1828) 3:437-40.
12.	1828  John Keats:   Walter Savage Landor, in "Landor, English Visitor, and Florentine Visitor" Imaginary Conversations (1828) 3:424-31.
13.	1828  Percy Bysshe Shelley:   Walter Savage Landor, in "Landor, English Visitor, and Florentine Visitor" Imaginary Conversations (1828) 3:440-41.
14.	1834  Robert Southey:   Walter Savage Landor, in "To Joseph Ablett" 1834; Works (1846) 2:673.
15.	1837  William Blake:   Walter Savage Landor, 1837; in John Forster, Landor, a Biography (1869) 508-09.
16.	1838  Robert Southey:   Walter Savage Landor to Leigh Hunt, 6 February 1838; Correspondence of Leigh Hunt (1862) 1:318-19.
17.	1843  William Hazlitt:   Walter Savage Landor, 1843; Forster, Landor, a Biography (1869) 568-59.
18.	1843  William Wordsworth:   Walter Savage Landor, 1843; Forster, Landor, a Biography (1869) 569.
19.	1845  Chandos Leigh:   Walter Savage Landor to Mrs. Paynter, 3 August 1845; Landor, Letters (1899) 146.
20.	1846  Thomas Babington Macaulay:   Walter Savage Landor, "To Macaulay" Works (1846) 2:673.
21.	1846  Bryan Waller Procter:   Walter Savage Landor, "To Barry Cornwall" Works of Walter Savage Landor (1846) 2:671.
22.	1846  William Wordsworth:   Walter Savage Landor, in "To Wordsworth" Works of Walter Savage Landor (1846) 2:667.
23.	1850  Sir Walter Scott:   Walter Savage Landor, 1850; Forster, Landor, a Biography (1869) 634.
24.	1853  Ebenezer Elliott:   Walter Savage Landor, "On the Statue of Ebenezer Elliott" 1853; Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05) 5:582.
25.	1854  Mary Russell Mitford:   Walter Savage Landor, "To Mary Russell Mitford" 1854 ca.; L'Estrange, Friendships of Mary Russell Mitford (1882) 438.
26.	1855  Sir Richard Steele:   Walter Savage Landor, in Silent Companions (1855); Forster, Landor, a Biography (1869) 638.
27.	1856  William Gifford:   Walter Savage Landor, 1856; Forster, Landor, a Biography (1869) 569.
28.	1857  Elizabeth Barrett Browning:   Walter Savage Landor to John Forster, 1857; Forster, Landor, a Biography (1869) 47-48.
29.	1858  Percy Bysshe Shelley:   Walter Savage Landor, 1858; Forster, Landor, a Biography (1869) 641-42.
30.	1858  Rev. Jonathan Swift:   Walter Savage Landor, 1858; Forster, Landor, a Biography (1869) 641.
31.	1860  Rev. Henry Francis Cary:   Walter Savage Landor to Robert Lytton, 23 October, 1860; John Forster, Landor, a Biography (1869) 14.
32.	1860 ca.  Dr. Henry Harington:   Walter Savage Landor to John Forster, 1860 ca.; John Forster, Landor, a Biography (1869) 14.