William Gifford was an English Conservative satirist, critic, and editor. He is chiefly remembered for his editorship of the Anti-Jacobin and the Quarterly Review and his scathing satiric attacks on the Della Cruscan school of poetry. He also edited the important volume The Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin (1799). Born in Ashburton, Devon, in 1756, the story of Gifford’s early life is one of triumph over adversity, as recounted by the author himself in the preface to his popular translation of Juvenal (1802). His father Edward Gifford was a glazier and house painter but “fell a martyr” to drink and, according to Gifford, died of a “decayed and ruined constitution” (Keen, 62). His mother, Elizabeth Cain …
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Citation: O'Connell, Mary. "William Gifford". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 July 2009 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1735, accessed 25 November 2024.]
