William Cliffton

William Cliffton
Born1772 Edit this on Wikidata
DiedDecember 1799 Edit this on Wikidata (aged 26–27)
OccupationPoet Edit this on Wikidata

William Cliffton (1771 – December 1799) was a Philadelphian poet and pamphleteer. He is the only identified member of the Anchor Club.[1] He is considered part of the "transitive state" of American poetry.[2]

Born the son of a wealthy Quaker, Cliffton suffered form a blood clot at the age of nineteen, and from then until his death, aged twenty-seven, pursued an almost exclusively literary life, though he took an interest in field sports.

Cliffton was a supporter of William Cobbett. He died in December 1799[3] from consumption.[4]

Works

  • A Poetical Rhapsody of the Times.. (as Dick Retort) (1796) [5]
  • A Flight of Fancy (1800)

References

  • L. A. Bressler (1951). William Cliffton: Philadelphia Poet, 1771-1799: A Critical and Biographical Essay and a Collection of His Writings. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania.
  1. ^ "The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography". LXXX. Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 1956: 314. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  2. ^ Elements of Rhetoric and Literary Criticism: With Copious Practical Exercises and Examples. For the Use of Common Schools and Academies. Including, Also, a Succinct History of the English Language, and of British and American Literature from the Earliest to the Present Times. Harper. 1845. p. 278.
  3. ^ Rufus Wilmot Griswold (1842). The Poets and Poetry of America: With an Historical Introduction. Carey and Hart. pp. 35–36.
  4. ^ Henry Adams (22 September 2011). History of the United States of America (1801-1817). Vol. 1: During the First Administration of Thomas Jefferson 1. Cambridge University Press. p. 98. ISBN 978-1-108-03302-2.
  5. ^ Roger Eliot Stoddard; David Rhodes Whitesell (2012). A Bibliographical Description of Books and Pamphlets of American Verse Printed from 1610 Through 1820. Penn State Press. p. 382. ISBN 978-0-271-05221-2.


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