author
John Gilbert Cooper
1723–1769
An eighteenth-century British poet and man of letters, he wrote on taste, criticism, and classical subjects as well as verse. His work offers a lively glimpse into the literary world of the 1700s.
1 Audiobook
Essays on Taste
by John Gilbert Cooper, John Armstrong
About the author
Born at Thurgarton Priory in the early 1720s, he was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge. He was known as a British poet and miscellaneous writer, and he published in several genres rather than limiting himself to one kind of work.
He is especially associated with writing on aesthetics and criticism, including Letters Concerning Taste, alongside poetry and other literary pieces. His career reflects the wide-ranging interests of many eighteenth-century authors, moving between creative writing, literary discussion, and classical learning.
Sources on his life give his birth year as either 1722 or 1723, but they agree that he died in 1769. No confirmed portrait image was found in the sources reviewed; the available image was of Thurgarton Priory rather than of the author himself.