Biographies & Works
(Published 1770 - 2022+)
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Discover Chatterton's Life & Works and get a feel for how he was viewed through the ages. Starting from 1770, below, to the present day at the foot the page. This is not a list of Chatterton's works, although they are all included in the publications listed below. The list also makes it easier to trace 'facts' to their source.
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Note: Magazines and Periodicals are not included on this page. For Magazines and Periodicals : ...View
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An Elegy on William Beckford : No link yet
(I will upload my own copy when I find the time).
Thomas Chatterton, 1770.
The Auction a Poem, A Familiar Epistle to a Friend : View
Thomas Chatterton, 1770.
​The Execution of Sir Charles Bawdin : View
Thomas Chatterton, 1770
Poems, supposed to have been written at Bristol by Thomas Rowley...
This was the very first attempt at a collected edition of Chatterton's 'Rowley' works
Ist edition 1777...View : 2nd edition 1777...View : 3rd edition 1778...View
Thomas Tyrwhitt 1777, 1778
Miscellanies in Prose and Verse : View
John Broughton 1778
A Letter to the Editor of the Miscellanies of Thomas Chatterton : View
Horace Walpole 1779
All editions with basic analysis. Much of what we know about Chatterton derive from the wonderful weirdness of Herbert Croft's book.
Herbert Croft 1780 & 1786
Observations Upon the Poems of Thomas Rowley : View
In which the Authenticity of those Poems is Ascertained
Jacob Bryant 1781
Poems supposed to have been written at Bristol... by Thomas Rowley Priest... : View
Jeremiah Milles, D.D 1782
A Supplement to the Miscellanies of Thomas Chatterton : View
T. Becket 1784
Supplement to Chatterton's Miscellanies. Kew Gardens : View
From a British Library transcript : see Warren p.54
Seems to be a one off, with no textual authority.
No title page; editor unknown, date 1785?
The History and Antiquities of the City of Bristol : View
William Barrett : 1789
The Life of Thomas Chatterton (1789) : View
The first full biography; Biographia Britannica Vol 4. (1789).
(It starts with the phrase; 'Appendix to Letter C. No. 1, Vol 3,
page 450,' which is to follow if I can find it)
George Gregory : 1789
Poems, Supposed to have been written at Bristol : see below
by Thomas Rowley and Others in the 15th century
(Contains Coleridge's Monody on the Death of Chatterton).
Lancelot Sharpe (Editor)
The Works of Thomas Chatterton (The Works of the British Poets) : View
Robert Anderson : 1795
Bio and 'Goggle-Eyed' portrait.
It is now 26 years since the death of Chatterton, and this magazine is adamant that he didn't write the poems of Rowley, see pages 5 - 20. Practically everything we know about anything is derivative, especially this bio, but it is still an enjoyable read.
H.D.Symonds, January 1797
Original Poems of the Late Unfortunate Thomas Chatterton : No View
More and anecdote than a biography. Edward Gardner states that he knew Chatterton for the three months before he left Bristol. Chatterton would have been 17, Gardner 13.
He was a friend of Edward Jenner, and wrote an essay, Observations on the Utility of inoculating for the variolae vaccinae, or cow-pox, published 1801 : View
Edward Gardner 1798 (no link yet, photos due from my own copy)
Denkwurdigkeiten aus Chattertin's Leben : View
Chatterton Leben, (Life of) : View
With German translations of the following works:
Auswahl aus Chatterton's Dichtungen : View
(A selection of the works of Chatterton).
Eclogue 1, 2, 3,
Elinoure and Juga
A Ballad of the Mynstrelles
Minstrelles Song
Another Minstrelles Song (O! synge untoe mie roundelaie)
An Exellent Ballad on Charitie
The Works of Thomas Chatterton, in three volumes : View
Vol 1: His Life, by Gregory and Miscellaneous Poems;
Vol 2: The Poems Attributed to Rowley;
Vol 3: Miscellaneous Pieces in Prose.
Southey, Cottle & Gregory 1803
The Life of Thomas Chatterton : View
John Davis 1806
Introduction to an Examination of...the Internal Evidence : View
respecting the Antiquity and Authenticity...
John Sherwen 1809
An Historical and Architectural Essay relating to Redcliffe Church : View
Includes An Essay on the Life and Character of Thomas Chatterton.
The essay on Chatterton includes transcripts of his two letters to Dodsley, printed for the first time.
Click here to go directly to the project page dedicated to the letters : View
John Britton 1813
The works of John Dix
The Life of Chatterton (1837) : View
Complete with the infamous frontispiece portrait of 'Chatterton'
The Life of Chatterton (1851) : View
Second edition but this time without the portrait.
Pen and Ink Sketches: (1845) : View
John Dix
Oeuvres complètes de Chatterton. précédées d'une Vie de Chatterton.
Pagnon (translator), Life by Callet 1839
The Poetical Works of Thomas Chatterton
Notices of his Life. History of the Rowley Controversy.
A delightful edition with a backstory to follow.
Charles B. Wilcox 1842
Memorials of the Canynges' Family...Memoranda...Chatterton : View
George Pryce 1854
Chatterton: A Story of the Year 1770 : View
(In: Essays Chiefly on English Poets)​
Chatterton is in illustrious company in this volume of essays, which includes Shakespeare; Milton, & Wordsworth. The Chatterton essay in this collection has a few errors, which were corrected when Masson published a volume dedicated to Chatterton in 1874 - see lower down.
David Masson 1856
S. R. Maitland 1857
The Works of Thomas Chatterton
View volume 1 (1857) : View volume 2 (1863)
Boston: Little, Brown and Company 1857
The Life of Thomas Chatterton, The Poet : View
James R. Bennett: pub. 1860
The Life and Character of Chatterton - A Lecture : View
In The Martyrdom of Misdirected Genius.
Stephen N. Elrington: pub. 1864
Chatterton: A Biographical Study : View
Daniel Wilson: pub 1869
The Poetical Works of Thomas Chatterton
with a memoir by Edward Bell : View volume 1 View volume 2
Walter Skeat (with a memoir by Edward Bell) 1871
The Poet Chatterton (chapter) : View
A Book About Bristol (title page) : View
A chapter on Chatterton, and mentions him elsewhere on numerous occasions.
John Taylor 1872 : (Librarian of the Bristol Museum and Library)
Chatterton: A Story of the Year 1770 : View
David Masson 1874
The Love Letters of Mr H & Miss R. : View
Based on Love and Madness by H. Croft
Gilbert Burgess (Editor) 1895
The Rowley Poems of Thomas Chatterton :
Robert Steele & Charles Ricketts 1898
Bristol and its Famous Associations : View
A chapter on Chatterton; includes the first printing of photographs of Chatterton's 'Will,' & the first published images of Burgum and of Catcott.
Stanley Hutton 1907
Thomas Chatterton, The Marvelous Boy : View
A Biography of Chatterton by a Pulitzer prize winner.
Charles Edward Russell 1908
A Biography of Chatterton from one of the protagonists in the Chatterton Family Bible saga
John Ingram 1910
The Rowley Poems by Thomas Chatterton : View
The link to this book is on the wonderful Ex-Classics website : View
Reprinted from Tyrwhitt's Third Edition
Edited, with an introduction, by
Maurice Evan Hare 1911
Thomas Chatterton, The Marvelous Boy..."The Exhibition"...: No View
Esther Parker Ellinger 1930 (no Link)
A Life of Thomas Chatterton : View
The definitive Life of Chatterton. It seems to be available online only to those who move in academic circles. Although there can't be too many Dons reading it online, as most of them were killed off in Morse and Endeavour. To overcome this difficulty (not the missing Dons but the lack of an online copy available to all) I have photographed every one of the 800 odd pages in Meyerstein's autograph manuscript copy. The link in the title above will take you to my page dedicated to Meyerstein.
E. H. W. Meyerstein 1930
The Marvellous Boy : No view
Ernst Penzoldt - Translated by J. Trounstine 1931
The Complete Works of Thomas Chatterton
A stunning and indispensable work - where would I be without it!
Oxford Scholarly Editions have an OCR'd edition online, which I can't get access to (I'm a pleb you see).
However, I do own a hard copy and have now OCR'd the Contents list etc, which, if you have a hard copy yourself and are also a pleb, it will help you no end! View
Donald S. Taylor 1971 (in common parlance he would be the GOAT)
The Marvelous Boy. The Life and Myth of Thomas Chatterton : No View
I like this edition, even though the opening page of the Life has Chatterton's year of birth as 1753, and the later edition failed to correct this error. It actually put me off from reading the book. However, nearly twenty years on from first buying it, I finally put my picky, prickly attitude to one side and really enjoyed the book and found it informative.
Linda Kelly 1971
The Family Romance of the Impostor-Poet Thomas Chatterton : View
Louise J. Kaplan 1988
The Forger's Shadow (2002) : View
The love that Nick has for the subject is palpable and, of course, Chatterton looms large throughout the book, including images of the death of Chatterton on the front and back endpapers. What I like, too, is that it covers so many layers of the art of 'forgery' in literature. This is what I really like, learning something new at the same time as being entertained. Finally, extra thanks go to Nick for including that indispensable thing, an index - ooh, I just love a good index, I do, I do! Nick is standing on the shoulders of Meyerstein's index, from his A Life of Thomas Chatterton, which contains the scariest index ever written! (No link for online reading).
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive : View
A project to gather online all 18th century poetry - including Chatterton's works.
Heads Up!
When searching a specific word in an online volume you will sometimes get a negative result even though the word is present! The function finds it difficult to recognise some words due to faded or foxed type, or when the long S is used (see image below).
