The Library [antikvár]

A NOTE ON THE AUTHOR. George crab be was bom on Christmas Eve, 1754, in ¦ Aldeburgh, Suffolk. His life and work are an intriguing mixture of the drab and the colorful, the decorous and the frivolous. His father was a schoolmaster and collector of the salt tax. One of his brothers settled in Mexico; another commanded a slave ship. As a youth Crabbe worked in a warehouse and as errand boy and farm laborer for a village doctor. At Woodbridge he met Sarah Elmy; "love led to poetry"; and Sarah became the "Mira" of one of his early pieces. After an unsuccessful stint as a surgeon, Crabbe resumed writing in earnest. In 1780 he went to London, laden with manuscripts, to seek a patron and a publisher. He found both through the good offices of Edmund Burke, who persuaded Dodsley to publish The Library. It appeared anonymously in 1781, and under Crabbe's name in 1783. With Burke's help, Crabbe became curate to the rector of Aldeburgh. In 1783 he married Sarah and embarked on a life of strictest propriety. He published nothing for twenty-two years, although periodically he burned quantities of manuscripts in dramatic "incremations." Crabbe moved from curacy to rectorship, fathered seven children (five of whom died), and saw his wife succumb to nervous depression. During the years 1807-1812 he achieved considerable popularity, his lyrics and health having improved with the