Percy Bysshe Shelley

Born on August 4th, 1792, Percy Bysshe Shelley was born into his family as the eldest of 6 children in Sussex. He first started writing when he was 17 years old and published his first work Zastrozzi in 1810. He attended Oxford University for a short time, until he was expelled for publishing a series of anonymous political poems that also glorified atheism. Shelley died in July of 1822. His works truly picked up steam after his death, with his late wife, Mary Shelley, editing and publishing many of his pieces.

• Central writer of the Romantic Era
• Influenced later writers such as Robert Browning, W.B. Yeats, Thomas Hardy, and more
• A pioneer of 'modern nonviolent resistance' and he may have indirectly influenced Gandhi's philosophy through his poem The Mask of Anarchy (1832)
• His conversion to vegetarianism in 1812 inspired the founding of England's Vegetarian Society