The Order of Authors: Degrees of ‘Popularity’ and ‘Fame’ in John Clare’s Writing

Abstract

This essay analyses Clare’s essay ‘Popularity in Authorship’, arguing that the work can be seen as a central statement in Clare’s recurrent concern with poetic fame and authorial reputation. By connecting ‘Popularity in Authorship’ with Clare’s sonnets on his Romantic contemporaries (Robert Bloomfield and Lord Byron), the essay contends that Clare’s complex understanding of ‘popular’ and ‘common’ notions of fame helps to bring into focus a distinctive contribution to debates about how authors were received by different audiences in the period.

Keywords

• John Clare
• Authorship
• Fame
• Poetry
• Authorial Reputation
• Reception
• Adam White