Lord George Gordon Byron was as famous in his lifetime for his personality cult as he was for his poetry. He is credited with creating the concept of the "Byronic hero"-a defiant, melancholy young man, brooding on some mysterious, unforgivable event in his past. Byron's influence on European poetry, music, novel, opera and painting has been immense, despite the fact that the poet was widely condemned on moral grounds by his contemporaries.
George Gordon Byron, was born on January 22, 1788, the son of Captain John Byron and Catherine Gordon. He was born with a club-foot and was sensitive about his lameness throughout his life . Byron spent his early childhood years in poor surroundings in Aberdeen, where he was educated only until he was ten. After he inherited the title and property of his great-uncle in 1798, he went on to Dulwich, Harrow and Cambridge, where he piled up debts and aroused public alarm with bisexual love affairs. While he was staying at Newstead in 1802, he probably first met his half-sister, Augusta Leigh, with whom he was later suspected of having an incestuous relationship.
In 1807, Byron's first collection of poetry, Hours of Idleness, was published and received very bad reviews. The poet promptly answered his critics with the satire English Bards and Scotch Reviewers in 1808. The next year he took his seat in the House of Lords, and set out on his grand tour, visiting Spain, Malta, Albania, Greece and the Aegean. Real poetic success came in 1812 when Byron published the first two cantos of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. He became an adored character throughout London society, spoke in the House of Lords effectively on liberal themes and had a hectic love-affair with Lady Caroline Lamb. Byron had reached a new level of fame when The Corsair, published in 1814, sold 10,000 copies on the first day of publication.
He married Anne Isabella Milbanke in 1815, and their daughter Ada was born in the same year. However, their marriage was unhappy and they obtained legally separated in 1816. Rumors of marital violence, adultery with actresses, incest with Augusta Leigh and sodomy were circulated, assisted by a jealous mistress.
When rumors about his incestuousness arose and heavy debts began accumulating, Byron left England in 1816, never to return. He went on to settle in Geneva with Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley and Claire Clairmont, who became his mistress. It was there that he wrote the two cantos of Childe Harold and The Prisoner of Chillon. At the end of the summer Byron continued on with his travels, spending two years in Italy. During his years in Italy, Byron wrote Lament of Tasso, which was inspired by his visit to Tasso's cell in Rome, Mazeppa and started Don Juan, his satirical masterpiece. While visiting Ravenna and Pisa, Byron became deeply interested in drama and wrote among others,The Two Foscari, Sardanapalaus, Cain and the unfinished Heaven and Earth.
After a long creative period, Byron had come to feel that action was far more important than poetry. He decided to arm a brig, The Hercules, and sail to Greece to aid the Greeks, who had risen against their Ottoman overlords. However, before he was able to see any serious military action, Byron contracted a fever and died in Missolonghi on April 19, 1824. Memorial services were held in various countries. Byron's body was returned to England but was refused by the deans of both Westminster and St Paul's. Finally after some months of dispute Byron's coffin was placed in the family vault at Hucknall Torkard, near Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire.