Today in history

• 1772

  William Blake – On the 4th of August 1772, Blake is apprenticed to engraver James Basire of Great Queen Street [London, United Kingdom]

• 1792

  Percy Bysshe Shelley – Perchy Bysshe Shelley was born in 1792 in Horsham, West Sussex and is considered one of the foremost romantic poets in literature. His father was a member of parliament and his mother was a landowner. [Broadbridge Heath, West Sussex, United Kingdom]

• 1847

  Herman Melville – On the 4th of August 1847 Melville marries Elizabeth Shaw [New York, United States]

• 1899

  Sir Walter de la Mare – On the 4th of August 1899 Mare marries Elfrida Ingpen [London, United Kingdom]

• 1913

  Robert Hayden – On the 4th of August 1913 Robert Hayden is born in Detroit, Michigan [Detroit, Michigan, United States]

• 1914

  Siegfried Sassoon – In August 1914 Sassoon joins the the Sussex Yeomanry [Brighton, Sussex, United Kingdom]

• 1955

  Anne Sexton – Sexton's daughter was born after which she suffered from depression. [Boston, Massachusetts, United States]

Featured news

Mary de Rachewiltz Dies / Booker Prize Longlist – Poetry News Roundup July 31st

This week in our poetry news round up we look at the death of the poet and translator Mary de Rachewiltz, keeper of Ezra Pound's legacy, and the announcement of the 2026 Booker Prize longlist. Poet and Translator Mary de Rachewiltz Dies Aged 101 Mary de Rachewiltz, the Italian-American poet and translator who spent much of her long life as the custodian of her father's literary estate, has died at the age of 101. ...

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