The Emergence of the English Author
Scripting the Life of the Poet in Early Modern England

The emergence of the author and the development of literary authority, through literary biography 1400–1800.

Kevin Pask (Author)

9780521020923, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 6 October 2005

232 pages, 6 b/w illus.
22.8 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.358 kg

'This eloquently written and informative book will surely come to be regarded as essential reading for all those interested in the development of the concept of poetic authorship in early modern England.' New Theatre Quarterly

The historical construction of literary authorship has long been of particular interest to literary scholars. Yet an important aspect of the historical emergence of the author - the literary biography or 'life of the poet' - has received scant attention. In The Emergence of the English Author, Kevin Pask studies the early life-narratives of five now-canonical English poets: Geoffrey Chaucer, Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser, John Donne and John Milton. By attending to the changing shape of the lives of these poets, Pask produces a history of the developing conception of literary authorship in England from the late medieval period to the end of the eighteenth century, and offers a long-term sociological account of literary production. His book is the first full-scale history of the cultural construction of literary authority in early modern England.

1. England's 'olde Ennius': Geoffrey Chaucer
2. The 'mannes state' of Philip Sidney
3. Patronage, friendship, and poetic tradition: Sidney and Spenser
4. 'Libertine in wit': Dr Donne in literary culture
5. Milton's daughters.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: poetry & poets [DSC]