Landor, Walter Savage

Landor, Walter Savage (1775-1864), English poet and prose writer, born in Warwick. He lived abroad, chiefly in Italy, for many years. Though he spent much of his time quarrelling with authorities (he left Rugby School and Oxford University after disagreements with the authorities of these institutions), he managed to win the friendship of a number of literary figures, particularly among the Romantics, including Robert Southey, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Charles Lamb. His first published poetic work was Gebir (1798), an epic in blank verse; one graceful example of his shorter lyrical poems is “Rose Aylmer” (1806). Landor's prose, characterized by a Romantic drive as well as adherence to Classical form, is best represented by Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen (5 vols., 1824-1853). This massive work contains approximately 150 dialogues on philosophical matters among historical people from the Greeks to Landor's contemporaries. Landor also wrote poetry and prose in both Latin and Italian.