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Samuel Taylor Coleridge, often shortened to S.T.C., was born October 21, 1772 to John Coleridge, a minister, and Ann Bowden Coleridge in Ottery St. Mary, Devonshire, England. He was the youngest of ten children. Coleridge would begin attending reading school at the young age of 3 and would continue on there for three years. Upon turning 6 years old, he moved to "Henry VIII Free Grammar School" in Ottery. Coleridge would lose his father halfway through the American Civil War on October 6, 1781. Upon his father's death, Coleridge was sent to "Christ's Hospital" a charity school for children of the clergy. Seven years later he was named "Grecian" or first of his class.

In September of 1791 Coleridge took a large step into what would be the rest of his life when he entered Cambridge University. He was however much poorer than most of his peers and by 1793 his opium addiction compounded by alcoholism and women, Coleridge found himself in debt. He decided to leave Cambridge to join the 15th Light Dragoons under the alias Silas Tomkyn Comberbache on December 2, 1793. Only four and a half months later Coleridge is discharged from the army. With the money he had managed to save he returned to Cambridge to continue his studies. Once again he found that he was unable to fund his schooling and left Cambridge for the final time in December of 1794.

Coleridge scraped through most of his life writing newspaper articles and giving public lectures on subjects like politcs and philosophy. He tried to ply his way on his prose and poems alone, but like most artists of his day, true recognition of his work would not come till well after his death on July 25, 1834. Through his life he had two wives, neither of which supported his poetry, and many children. He held a few prominent posts, and was at one time a spy for his majesty the King of England in Malta.

Biography by Steven Norton
Submitted on 2.03.03