Browning , Robert , 1812-1889 , poet

Robert Browning was born in Camberwell, London in 1812. He was educated locally and at home, where he enjoyed reading and writing poetry from an early age. He entered the new University of London in 1828 but left after a year to study privately, with no profession in mind. His first poem was published in 1833 and during subsequent years he became well known, though not always popular with the critics. He married fellow poet Elizabeth Moulton Barrett (1806-1861), in 1846 and they lived mainly in Italy; Browning returned to London permanently after her death in 1861. During the 1870s and 1880s he became one of Britain's most famous living poets, and was a critical as well as a commercial success at the time of his death. His best known works include Porphyria's Lover (1836) and The Ring and the Book (1868-1869).