Irish writer Sydney Owenson tended to be coy about her age, perhaps because she may have been several years older than her husband. Date of birth speculations range from 1776-1785. Owenson began writing poetry and fiction while working as a governess. Her first publication, Poems, Dedicated by Permission to the Countess of Moira (1801) appeared the same year that the Act of Union shattered nationalist hopes for Irish independence. She perhaps imbibed the theme of Irish patriotism from her father, an actor and theater manager who had hoped to establish an Irish national drama.

Rhetorician and religious writer Sir Thomas More published Utopia in 1516.

The highly successful evangelical writer Hannah More was also a noted poet and playwright. Her poem The Bas Bleu (1786) commemorated Elizabeth Montagu's bluestocking circle, most of whom she knew well. Her most important plays included Percy (1778) and The Fatal Falsehood (1779). The abolitionist Slavery: A Poem appeared in 1788. She was best known for a collection of moral tales and instruction for the poor published as Cheap Repository Tracts (1795-98). Strictures on the Modern System of Female Education (1799) contributed to the period's debates on the woman question.

Character in Samuel Richardson's Clarissa (1747-9).

This Portuguese author produced Palmerin de Inglaterra (Palmerin of England), a chivalric romance.

An Irish poet, biographer, and lyricist, Moore was best loved in his time for works such as Irish Melodies (1808-1834) and Lalla Rookh, An Oriental Romance (1817). His 1830 biography of Byron remains valuable today.

Son of John Moore, the physician and novelist. Sir John Moore became famous in his own right for his successful military career. He died from an injury he sustained in the 1809 Battle of Corruna during the Napoleonic invasion of Spain.

Scottish physician and author. Titles by the author include his most popular novel Zeluco (1789), A View of Society and Manners in France, Switzerland, and Germany (1779), Medical Sketches (1786), A View of Society and Manners in Italy (1787), A Journal during a Residence in France, from the Beginning of August to the Middle of December (1792), An Account of the most remarkable Events that happened at Paris, from that Time to the Death of the late King of France, Edward (1796), and Mordaunt (1800).

Moore's most significant works include the plays The Foundling (1748) and The Gamester (1753) as well as the periodical The World (1753-6).

Elizabeth Moody (1737-1814) Born Elizabeth Greenly, Elizabeth Moody grew up in fashionable circles in the outskirts of London. She was an avid reader and an apt scholar in modern languages, acquiring unusual fluency in French and Italian, skills that are evident in her literary criticism. As a young woman, she circulated her verse compositions within a small literary coterie until shortly after her 1777 marriage to Dissenting clergyman Christopher Lake Moody, a versatile literary professional. Soon after the wedding and probably with Dr.