The Family Romance of the Imposter Poet Thomas Chatterton.
Chatterton [1752-1770] is known for writing poems he attributed to 15th century monk Thomas Rowley, which he copied onto parchment to cast them as medieval. He also wrote copious amounts of poems "of his own." His suicide in his London attic at age 17, attributed to poverty, near starvation, and his fear of exposure of the Rowley fraud, made him an archetype and helped start the Romantic movement. Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley and Keats all dedicated works to Chatterton. He predated the English poets who burned themselves out young. Kaplan is a clinical psychologist. She examines Chatterton's life and provides insight into imposture, problems of adolescence, and the late 18th century Romantic movement. Some cover scuffs, otherwise Very Good. University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles. 1989. Paper. USED. $5.00