John Payne Collier (1789-1883) was born in London on January 11, 1789. The young Collier was educated entirely at home, including being taught Latin and Greek by his father. The family moved in stimulating literary circles, which doubtless expanded the horizons of their eldest son. Charles and Mary Lamb were friends and frequent visitors, as were essayist William Hazlitt and diarist Henry Crabb Robinson. Collier met Wordsworth in 1812 and by 1818 claimed to be on easy terms with him. He also knew and admired the poet and sage Samuel Taylor Coleridge, whose 1811-12 series of lectures on Shakespeare and Milton Collier attended and subsequently published in part.
Collier commenced his career as a journalist, writing for The Times<…
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Citation: Jones, Gordon. "John Payne Collier". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 July 2011 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=954, accessed 24 November 2024.]
