Horace Walpole

Horace Walpole (1717-1797), English novelist and letter writer, born in London. After an education at Eton College and the University of Cambridge, he traveled in France and Italy with his friend the English poet Thomas Gray. Walpole entered Parliament in 1741 and remained a member until his retirement in 1768. His political career was limited to minor government posts, which he received primarily through the influence of his father, the prime minister Sir Robert Walpole. In 1748 Walpole purchased the villa of Strawberry Hill, in Twickenham, a suburb to the west of London. The estate became a showplace because of its pseudo-Gothic architecture, its fine library, and its collections of art and curios. He established a printing press there in 1757, and the fine books he produced influenced the development of English printing and bookmaking. Walpole dabbled in all the literary arts and made a real contribution to art history with his four-volume study Anecdotes of Painting in England (1762-1771). He is better known, however, for his novel The Castle of Otranto (1764); pervaded by elements of the supernatural, it is one of the first works of the genre known as the Gothic romance (see Gothic Novel). Walpole's literary reputation also rests firmly on his correspondence, which provides witty and incisive commentaries on his time; Yale University Press began publishing this enormous collection of nearly 7000 letters in 1937; in 1983 the final 6 volumes were published, for a total of 48.