Coleridge, Hartley (kōlˈrĭj, kōˈlə–) [key], 1796–1849, English author; eldest son of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Reared in the household of the poet Southey after the estrangement of his parents, Hartley Coleridge went to Oxford and gained a fellowship at Oriel. His shy and melancholy nature, however, curtailed a very promising university career. He was dismissed from Oriel for intemperance and went to London. There he wrote and tutored private pupils. His Biographia Borealis, a series of very sound critical biographies, appeared in 1833. The same year he published a small volume of poems, including some beautiful sonnets, which established his literary reputation. Shortly thereafter, he retired to the Lake District, where he remained until his death. In 1840 he edited the dramatic works of Massinger and Ford. His brother Derwent published the remainder of his literary works in 1851.
See his letters (ed. by E. L. Griggs and G. E. Griggs, 1936); biography by L. Hanson (1939, repr. 1962).
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