Samuel Rogers

Born in Stoke Newington near London on July 30, 1763, Samuel Rogers became one of the best-known English poets of his day. He came from a banking family, which gave him financial independence and helped him move easily in artistic and literary society.

Rogers is best known for works including The Pleasures of Memory, The Voyage of Columbus, and Italy. Though later generations often placed him in the shadow of contemporaries such as Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Byron, he was widely admired during his lifetime for the elegance of his writing and for his careful, polished style.

He was also famous as a host and conversationalist. His London home became a meeting place for major writers, artists, and public figures, and his recollections of these friendships remain valuable for anyone interested in literary life in Britain during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. He died in London on December 18, 1855.