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Home  »  library  »  BIOS  »  Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford (1717–1797)

C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford (1717–1797)

Walpole, Horace, later Earl of Orford. An English author, letter-writer, and dilettante; born in London, Sept. 24, 1717; died there, March 2, 1797. On an estate he bought near Twickenham, in a mansion he built, he established a library and museum, and set up a private press (1757), on which, with others, he printed his own works. He compiled ‘A Catalogue of the Royal and Noble Authors of England’ (1758); ‘Anecdotes of Painters in England’ (1761–71); ‘Historic Doubts on the Life and Reign of Richard III.’ (1768); and other works. He wrote: ‘The Castle of Otranto,’ a romance (1764); ‘The Mysterious Mother,’ a tragedy (1768); ‘Memoirs of the Last Ten Years of the Reign of George II.’ (1822); and other works. His many interesting letters are his chief title to literary fame. They were published in 9 vols., 1857–59. (See Critical and Biographical Introduction).