Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Born in Devon, England to respected reverend John Coleridge and his wife Anne, Samuel Taylor Coleridge was a solitary child who loved to read. He was sent to the boarding school Christ’s Hospital at age 8 and later attended Cambridge, though he did not receive a degree. Coleridge began publishing his poetry while still in school and in 1798, he published a joint volume of poetry with friend William Wordsworth. Some of Coleridge’s major works include the poems Kubla Khan and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, the prose work Biographia Literaria, and his critical work on Shakespeare. Coleridge suffered from depression and opium addiction, and died at 61 of heart failure compounded by a lung disorder.