Ackroyd's Brief Lives Series

Edgar Allan Poe served as a soldier and began his literary career composing verses modelled on Byron; soon he was trying out his 'prose-tales' - often horror melodramas such as "The Fall of the House of Usher." As editor of the "Literary Messenger" he was influential among critics and writers of the American South. His versatile writings - including, for example, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" and "The Raven" - continue to resonate down the centuries. Peter Ackroyd's biography of Poe opens with his end, his final days - no one knows what happened between the time when friends saw him off on the steam-boat to Baltimore and his discovery six days later dying in a tavern.This mystery sets the scene for a short life packed with drama and tragedy (drink and poverty) combined with extraordinary brilliance. Poe has been claimed as the forerunner of modern fantasy, and credited with the invention of psychological dramas (long before Freud), science fiction (before H.G. Wells and Jules Verne) and the detective story (before Arthur Conan Doyle). Tennyson described him as 'the most original genius that America has produced'.
He influenced European romanticism and was the harbinger of both Symbolism and Surrealism. Peter Ackroyd, who places significance on Poe's childhood (his travelling actor parents were miserably poor, his mother had TB and he was orphaned), claims that Poe found his family among writers - writers not only of his time but of the future generations who were influenced by the power of his imagination.

Chaucer

by Peter Ackroyd

Published 1 April 2004

Geoffrey Chaucer, who died in 1400, enjoyed an eventful life. He served with the Duke of Clarence and with Edward III, and in 1359 was taken prisoner in France and ransomed. Through his wife, Philippa, he gained the patronage of John of Gaunt, which helped him carve out a career at Court. His posts included Controller of Customs at the Port of London, Knight of the Shire for Kent, and King's Forester. He went on numerous adventurous diplomatic missions to France and Italy. He began to write in the 1360s, and is now known as the father of English poetry. His Troilus and Cressida is the first example of Modern English literature, and his masterpiece, Canterbury Tales, the forerunner of the English novel, dominated the last part of his life. Peter Ackroyd's short biography is rich in drama and colour. It evokes the medieval world of London and Kent, and provides an entertaining introduction to Chaucer's poetry.

Newton

by Peter Ackroyd

Published 15 April 2008

Charlie Chaplin

by Peter Ackroyd

Published 3 April 2014

He was the very first icon of the silver screen, and is one of the most recognisable faces in Hollywood, even a hundred years on from his first film. But what of the man behind the moustache? The director holding the camera as well as acting in front of it?

Peter Ackroyd's new biography turns the spotlight on Chaplin's life as well as his work, from his humble theatrical beginnings in music halls to winning an honorary Academy Award. Everything is here, from the glamour of his golden age to the murky scandals of the 1940s and eventual exile to Switzerland. This masterful brief life offers fresh revelations about one of the most familiar faces of the last century and brings the Little Tramp into vivid colour.

J.M.W. Turner

by Peter Ackroyd

Published 1 January 2006