author
Thomas Nash
1567–1601
A sharp, restless voice from Elizabethan London, this writer turned satire, scandal, and street-level energy into some of the liveliest prose of the 1590s. Best known for The Unfortunate Traveller and Pierce Penniless, he wrote with wit, nerve, and a gift for stirring debate.
2 Audiobooks
About the author
Thomas Nashe, also spelled Nash, was baptized in November 1567 at Lowestoft in Suffolk and studied at St John's College, Cambridge. He became one of the best-known literary figures of the Elizabethan period: a playwright, poet, satirist, and especially a brilliant pamphleteer whose writing mixed learned references with quick, vivid, conversational force.
After Cambridge he moved into London's literary world and became associated with the circle often called the University Wits. His best-known works include Pierce Penniless, a fierce and funny attack on the age's corruption and pretensions, and The Unfortunate Traveller, often described as an early English picaresque novel. His career was energetic and controversial, and he was drawn into public quarrels that helped make his name.
Much about his later life remains uncertain, including the exact date and place of his death, which is usually given as around 1601. Even so, his reputation has lasted because his prose still feels lively, bold, and unexpectedly modern, full of personality and verbal invention.