author
Walter Harte
1709–1774
A lively 18th-century writer, churchman, and Oxford scholar, he moved easily between poetry, history, and practical writing. He is especially remembered for his biography of Gustavus Adolphus and for his connection to the literary world around Alexander Pope.
1 Audiobook
An Essay on Satire, Particularly on the Dunciad
by Walter Harte
About the author
Born in 1709, Walter Harte was an English poet, historian, and clergyman. He was educated at Marlborough Grammar School and at St Mary Hall, Oxford, where he later became vice-principal. Sources consistently describe him as a friend of Alexander Pope, and his career combined academic life with church appointments, including a canonry at Windsor.
Harte wrote across several genres rather than sticking to just one. He is best known for The History of the Life of Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, but he also published poetry and works on agriculture, including Essays on Husbandry. That mix of literary, historical, and practical interests gives him a distinctive place among 18th-century British writers.
He died in 1774. Although he is not as widely read today as some of his contemporaries, his work still offers a useful glimpse into the broad, curious world of Georgian writing, where scholarship, religion, and literature often met in the same career.