author
George Puttenham
1529–1590
Best known for The Arte of English Poesie (1589), this Elizabethan writer helped shape how English poetry and rhetoric were discussed for generations. Even though parts of his life remain shadowy, his book became one of the key literary guides of the late 16th century.
1 Audiobook
The Arte of English Poesie
by George Puttenham
About the author
Little is known for certain about George Puttenham's early life, but he is generally identified as an English courtier, writer, and literary critic who died in 1590. He is most closely associated with The Arte of English Poesie, published anonymously in 1589 and widely regarded as one of the most important critical works of the Elizabethan period.
The book is a lively guide to poetry, style, and rhetorical technique. It explores what poetry is, how verse is shaped, and how language can be used with elegance, wit, and persuasion. Because it treats English as a language capable of serious literary art, it has remained valuable not just to historians of criticism, but to readers interested in how Renaissance writers thought about craft.
Questions about the book's authorship have appeared over time, but George Puttenham is still generally accepted as its author. For many readers today, his reputation rests almost entirely on that single work—yet it is a lasting one, since The Arte of English Poesie offers a vivid window into the tastes, ambitions, and literary self-confidence of Elizabethan England.