The rather reclusive Thomas Gray, one of the most esteemed poets of the eighteenth century, left a comparatively small body of work, highlights of which include An Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College (1747), An Elegy Wrote in a Country Church Yard (1751), and a collection of Odes (1757) that included "The Progress of Poesy" and "The Bard" (1754).
A gifted novelist, Graves published The Festoon, a collection of Epigrams in 1765, The Spiritual Quixote; or, The Summer's Ramble of Mr. Geoffry Wildgoose in 1773 and Columella; or, The Distressed Anchoret in 1779. Senilities; or, Solitary Amusements: in Prose and Verse appeared in 1801. Other publications by the author include Euphrosyne; or, Amusements on the Road of Life (1776); Eugenius; or, Anecdotes of the Golden Vale, an Embellished Narrative of Real Facts (1785); Lucubrations: Consisting of Essays, Reveries etc.
Antiquary and father of the author Rev. Richard Graves.
English Tory politician, Secretary at War, poet, and playwright. Influenced by the writing of Dryden, Lord Lansdowne was best known for his stage adaptations, including The Heroick Love (1698) and The Jew of Venice (1701).
Diplomat and politician.
Initially trained as a painter, Grandmaison (1759-1834) was appointed to the French Academy in recognition of his poetry in honor of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Hero of Samuel Richardson's The History of Sir Charles Grandison (1754).
The most interesting literary work by West Indian poet and physician James Grainger is The Sugar-Cane (1764). His "Solitude, an Ode" was reprinted, among other places, in Southey's Specimens of the Later English Poets (1807). He translated several Latin works, including the elegies of Tibullus. Grainger also authored groundbreaking medical treatises on the care of slaves.
English peer and politician who served as Lord High Steward at King George I's coronation, Privy Counsellor (1715), Knight of the Garter (1721), Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1720-1724), and Lord Chamberlain (1724-1757).
Mme de Grafigny's novel Lettres d'une Péruviennes (1747) tells the story of Zilia, an Incan princess captured by the Spanish.
