author
William Beloe
1756–1817
An English clergyman and man of letters, he wrote with a broad curiosity that ranged from classical translation to literary anecdote. His life also took a dramatic turn through his work at the British Museum, giving his story an edge beyond the usual scholar's career.
2 Audiobooks
About the author
Born in Norwich in 1756, William Beloe became an Anglican clergyman, translator, and prolific miscellaneous writer. He was educated under notable teachers including Samuel Parr, later studied at Cambridge, and built a reputation through learned but readable work drawn from classical literature and English letters.
Beloe is especially remembered for translations from ancient authors and for books that gathered literary gossip, biography, and reflections for general readers. He also served as keeper of printed books at the British Museum, a post that placed him close to the literary world of his day.
His career was not entirely smooth, and his dismissal from the Museum became part of his later story. Even so, he left behind a body of work that reflects the wide-ranging tastes of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century readers: scholarly, conversational, and full of curiosity about books and the people who wrote them.