William Thomas Beckford 1 October 1760 – 2 May 1844 William Beckford English novelist art critic
William Thomas Beckford (1 October 1760 – 2 May 1844), usually known as William Beckford, was an English novelist, art critic, travel writer and politician. He was Member of Parliament for Wells from 1784 to 1790, for Hindon from 1790 to 1795 and again from 1806 to 1820. Beckford was born in the family's London home at 22 Soho Square . At the age of ten, he inherited a large fortune from his father, a former Lord Mayor of the City of London, William Beckford consisting of £1 million in cash, land at Fonthill (including the Palladian mansion Fonthill Splendens) in Wiltshire, and several sugar plantations in Jamaica. This allowed him to indulge his interest in art and architecture, as well as writing. He was trained by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in music. Thirteen years later he married the fourth Earl of Aboyne's daughter, Lady Margaret Gordon on May 5, 1783. However, Beckford was bisexual, and was hounded out of polite English society when (probably unfounded) gossip accused him of seducing the Hon William Courtenay, later 3rd Viscount and 9th Earl of Devon. Beckford chose exile, in the company of his young wife, whom he grew to love deeply, but who died in childbirth at the age of 24. Having studied under Sir William Chambers and Alexander Cozens, Beckford journeyed in Italy in 1782 and promptly wrote a book on his travels: Dreams, Waking Thoughts and Incidents (1783). Shortly afterwards came his best-known work, the Gothic novel Vathek (1786), written originally in French and, as he was accustomed to boast, in a single sitting of three days and two nights. There is reason, however, to believe that this was a flight of his imagination. Vathek is an impressive work, full of fantastic and magnificent conceptions, rising occasionally to sublimity. His other principal writings were Memoirs of Extraordinary Painters (1780), a satirical work; and Letters from Italy with Sketches of Spain and Portugal (1835), full of brilliant descriptions of scenes and man
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