It was on this date, November 20, 1752, that the poet generally regarded as the first Romantic poet in English, Thomas Chatterton, was born in Bristol, the posthumous son of a local schoolmaster. Poverty and rejection were the story of his life, but in the brief 17 years of his existence, Chatterton forged mediæval poetry and prose of such quality — the “Rowley Poems” — that it deceived even Horace Walpole.

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Originally published October 2003 by Ronald Bruce Meyer.