Horace Walpole

Horace Walpole was born in London in 1717, the youngest son of Sir Robert Walpole, usually regarded as Britain's first prime minister. Educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge, he made the Grand Tour of France and Italy with the poet Thomas Gray. He sat in Parliament for many years but was more devoted to literature, art and antiquities than to politics. In 1747 he bought a small house at Twickenham and transformed it into Strawberry Hill, a fanciful Gothic villa filled with his collections, which helped launch the Gothic Revival in architecture. There he set up a private printing press. In 1764 he published The Castle of Otranto, presenting it at first as a translation of an old Italian manuscript; it is considered the first Gothic novel. He also wrote a tragedy, works on painters and royal authors, and memoirs of the reigns of George II and George III. His thousands of witty letters are a famous record of his age. In 1791 he became the fourth Earl of Orford. He never married and died in London in 1797.

Horace Walpole is also an author in the library: author page and works.

Faith: Faith not well documented.