author
John Gilbert Cooper
1723–1769
An 18th-century British poet and essayist, remembered for graceful verse and for writing about taste, criticism, and classical literature. His work sits at the crossroads of poetry, aesthetics, and the literary culture of Georgian England.
1 Audiobook
Essays on Taste
by John Gilbert Cooper, John Armstrong
About the author
Born in the early 1720s and dying in 1769, John Gilbert Cooper was a British poet and miscellaneous writer associated with the literary world of 18th-century England. He was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, and came from a family connected with Thurgarton Priory in Nottinghamshire.
Cooper published poetry as well as prose on literary and aesthetic subjects. He is especially noted for Letters Concerning Taste, along with other essays that show his interest in criticism, refinement, and the ideas shaping polite culture in his time. His reputation today is that of a thoughtful man of letters rather than a major canonical poet, but his work offers a clear glimpse into the tastes and debates of the period.
Some sources disagree slightly on details such as whether he was born in 1722 or 1723, so those particulars are best treated with caution. A suitable verified portrait image could not be confirmed from the sources reviewed.