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Author: Clifton, William

Biography:

CLIFTON, William (1772-99: DAB)

pseudonym Dick Retort

Poems published in his lifetime give his name as "Clifton" but the editor of the posthumous Poems, Chiefly Occasional, with an extended memoir (1800), used the spelling "Cliffton" and some records follow him. He belonged to a wealthy Quaker family in Philadelphia, and was well educated but delicate. (The memoir blames the "rupture of a blood-vessel" when he was 19.) He was a coarse but witty satirist and is said to have been influenced by the poetry of Peter Pindar and the writers of the Anti-Jacobin. He wrote in opposition to the influence of revolutionary France. (DAB; Appleton) HJ

 

Other Names:

  • the late Mr. Cliffton
 

Books written (3):

The Group: Or an Elegant Representation Illustrated.

Philadelphia: Thomas Stephens, 1796

Tit for Tat; or, a Purge for a Pill . . . . To Which is Added, a Poetical Rhapsody on the Times. Describing the Disasters of an Emigrant.

Philadelphia: printed for the author, [1796]

Poems, Chiefly Occasional . . . . To Which are Prefixed, Introductory Notices of the Life, Character and Writings, of the Author . . . ..

New York: J. W. Fenno, 1800