1821
John Keats
Characterized in the literary periodical, The Quarterly Review, as “a copyist of Mr. [Leigh] Hunt; but…more unintelligible, almost as rugged, twice as diffuse, and ten times more tiresome”, John Keats died of tuberculosis at age 25 having sold only an estimated 200 copies of his three volumes of poetry. Quoted by such varied characters as Mary Poppins (1964) and Willy Wonka (1971), ‘A thing of beauty is a joy forever’, is the opening line to one of his most famous poems, entitled Endymion, which was described at the time by writer John Gibson Lockhart as “imperturbable driveling idiocy.” Following his death, and due largely to emergent Victorian literary sensibilities, his reputation grew. He is now one of the most studied and celebrated of all English poets.