Todhunter, John

John Todhunter was born in Dublin on December 30th 1839, the eldest son of Thomas Harvey Todhunter, a Quaker merchant. He studied medicine at Trinity College Dublin, where he also won the Vice-Chancellor's prize for English Verse 1864, 1865 and 1866, and the Gold Medal of the Philosophical Society 1866 for a prose essay. After studying in Vienna and Paris he practised medicine in Dublin. In 1870 he accepted the post of Professor of English Literature in Alexander College, Dublin. After resigning in 1874 he travelled in Europe and in Egypt and finally settled in London. His home in Bedford Park, Chiswick, was in the midst of a small colony of writers and artists, including W.B. Yeats. Todhunter maintained his connections with the Irish literary revival and much of his later work is concerned with re-interpreting Irish myths and legends, and with Irish history. He was the author of seven volumes of poetry, from Laurella and other poems (1876) to The Banshee and other poems (1888), and a number of plays, mostly in verse, including Helena in Troas (1886), A Sicilian Idyll (1890), and The Black Cat (1895). His prose works included A study of Shelley (1879) and The life of Patrick Sarsfield (1895). Todhunter was also an occasional painter and composer. He died on October 25th 1916.

Epithet: author