RICHARD HENGIST HORNE ECCENTRIC ENGLISH POET BIOGRAPHY

Richard Hengist Horne, virtually unknown today was one of the most extraordinary figures of the 19th century literary scene. The author of an epic poem Orion which sold prodigiously for a farthing in the 1840s and was acclaimed a work of genius by almost every English critic, 'Orion' Horne (as he came to be known) was befriended by most of the great writers of his time: Hazlet, Leigh Hunt, the Brownings, Dickens, Miss Mitford, the Carlyles, Rosetti, Meredith, Swinburne.
His voluminous literary output is for the most part forgotten, but his life and character, his wildly romantic aspirations to be a man of genius, provide a fascinating tragi-comic study.