author
William Winstanley
d. 1698
A lively 17th-century English writer remembered for turning literary history into something readable and entertaining, he gathered stories of notable lives long before modern reference books made that easy. His work helped preserve a picture of England’s poets and public figures for later generations.
1 Audiobook
The Lives of the Most Famous English Poets (1687)
by William Winstanley
About the author
William Winstanley was an English poet and compiler of biographies, born around 1628 and dead in 1698. He is best known for collecting the lives and works of earlier writers and notable figures, especially in books such as England’s Worthies and The Lives of the Most Famous English Poets.
Rather than writing in a dry, scholarly way, Winstanley had a brisk, readable style that makes him an interesting guide to literary taste in Restoration England. His books mixed biography, anecdote, and literary history, helping keep the names of many earlier English writers in circulation.
Although he is not as famous today as some of the people he wrote about, his compilations remain useful as early records of English literary culture. For listeners interested in older poetry, literary history, or the world of 17th-century England, he offers a vivid glimpse of how writers were remembered in his own time.