Anniversarial — 2011

1711

On the 15th May 1711, Alexander Pope published, anonymously, An Essay on Criticism — he was 23 at the time. In the work, he attacked the prominent literary critic John Dennis. The resulting feud culminated in Dennis's attack on Pope's Homer in 1717. Four years later an exchange of letters between them suggests they had resolved their differences: John Dennis to Alexander Pope, 10 May 1721 and Alexander Pope to John Dennis, 14 May 1721.

For a interesting discussion of this famous feud see Edward N. Hooker's article on "Pope and Dennis" (ELH 7.3, 1940: 188–198; also available as JSTOR article 2871490).

Here are some of those correspondents whose birth or death is marked in 2011:

Births

Deaths

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