author
Thomas Gordon Hake
1809–1895
A Victorian poet who also trained and worked as a physician, he brought an unusual mix of imagination, intellect, and lived experience to his writing. His work later drew the admiration of figures in the Pre-Raphaelite circle, giving him a small but lasting place in 19th-century literary history.
2 Audiobooks
Memoirs of Eighty Years
by Thomas Gordon Hake
About the author
Born in Leeds on March 10, 1809, Thomas Gordon Hake was an English physician and poet. He was educated at Christ's Hospital and studied medicine in London, Edinburgh, and Glasgow, earning a medical degree before practicing for a time in places including Brighton.
Alongside medicine, he kept writing throughout his life. His earliest poetry appeared while he was still young, but much of his reputation rests on the books he published later in life, when he devoted himself more fully to literature. His work includes poems, sonnets, dramas, and prose pieces, often marked by an original, thoughtful style.
Hake became associated with the Pre-Raphaelite world and was admired by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, which helped bring renewed attention to his writing. He died on January 11, 1895, and is remembered as one of those distinctive Victorian authors whose career bridged both science and art.