William Michael Rossetti was a critic, editor, translator, biographer and secretary to the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He was art critic of
The Spectator(1850-1858) and
The Critic(1850-1856), and regularly contributed to
The Athenaeum,
Fraser’s Magazine, and
The Academy, among many others. Rossetti wrote significant biographies of Keats and Shelley and also translated Dante’s
Inferno. He promoted not only the contemporary work of the Pre-Raphaelite painters and writers, but also played a key role in rehabilitating the reputations of the Romantic poets who had preceded them, such as the nearly forgotten William Blake. Rossetti also championed American poets Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Walt Whitman, and was responsible for introducing Whitman’s poetry to a British readership.…
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Citation: Roe, Dinah. "William Michael Rossetti". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 24 October 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3854, accessed 23 November 2024.]
