Horace Walpole

An illuminating biographical study of the eighteenth-century English man of letters and patron of the arts

Horace Walpole (1717–1797) was a collector, printer, Gothic novelist, arbiter of taste, and letter writer. In this book, eminent Walpolian scholar and collector Wilmarth Sheldon Lewis provides an unprecedented look at the life and work of one of England’s greatest man of letters. What was Walpole really like? How to explain the contradictions and complexities of his character, behavior, and achievements? Why have so many found him so baffling? In answering questions such as these, Lewis sheds light on Walpole’s relationships with his family and friends, his politics, his writings and printmaking activities, and his correspondence.

This richly illustrated book features portraits of Walpole, his relatives, and friends; sketches and manuscripts by Walpole; pages from books printed at Walpole’s Strawberry Hill Press; and views and plans of Strawberry Hill, the house, its rooms and furnishings, and its grounds. Lewis’s extensive annotations provide invaluable context to all the images.