Fun Facts Friday: Lord Byron

Lord Byron (22 January, 1788 – 19 April, 1824) was an English romantic poet who is known for his work as well as his scandalous private life.

“George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron by Richard Westall (2)”
by Richard Westall (died 1836) – National Portrait Gallery: NPG 4243

Books by, or about, Lord Byron*

Fun Facts about Lord Byron:

1. His real name was George Gordon Noel, 6th Baron Byron of Rochdale
2. Byron’s father died when he was three years old, he inherited the title from a great uncle.
3. Lord Byron loved animals and traveled with a bunch of them including dogs, cats, monkeys, horses, an eagle, a crow and a falcon among others.
4. At Newstead Abbey, Byron’s home, he served guests drinks in goblets made of skulls from the family’s crypt. Lord Byron even asked for the skull of Percy Bysshe Shelley at his cremation. Shelley’s friends, knowing who he’s talking to, promptly refused.
5. A certain lifestyle has its consequences, by the time he was 21, Byron suffered from raging cases of gonorrhea and syphilis.
6. At the same year, Lord Byron took his seat in The House of Lords.
7. Lord Byron had only one legitimate child, Augusta Ada Byron King, who made a mark of her own as a mathematician who worked on early computers.
8. One publisher who was accused of pirating Byron’s Cain and Don Juan, said that the poems were so scandalous they did not deserve to by copyrighted.
9. One of his friends described Byron as “mad, bad and dangerous to know”
10. Lord Byron was so indebted and lived such a scandalous life that he left England and never returned.

Books by, or about, Lord Byron*

Zohar – Man of la Book
*Ama­zon links point to an affil­i­ate account