Author: Wright, John
Biography:
WRIGHT, John (fl 1786)
In 1786 John Wright published two collections of his own verse. The first was a small group of poems in English and Latin appended to his Latin translation of the famous “Elegy, written in a Country Churchyard” by Thomas Gray (q.v.)—a translation that the MR reviewer praised as “both faithful and elegant,” while admitting that Wright’s other poems were “not contemptible.” The second, reprinted in 1793, was an illustrated set of pious poems for children. One clue to his identity, besides his obvious level of education, is a poem about “the Author’s Journey into Middlesex, and to the Famous City of London” which suggests that he lived outside the metropolis. There were several provincial clergymen of this name at the time but he does not identify himself as a clergyman or even as BA. He might have been a schoolmaster. The name is too common to take the identification any further. (MR 74 [Mar. 1786], 231-3; CCEd 25 July 2024) HJ
Other Names:
- J. Wright