Alfred Lord Tennyson was born in Somersby, Lincolnshire. His father, also named Alfred, was a clergyman and poet. His mother, Emily Sellwood, was the daughter of a poet and novelist. He had two other siblings: Emily Anne (1835-1901) and George Laurence (1838-1922)
Read more
Emily Tennyson died of cancer when he was seven years old. At first his education was conventional; then, after attending Eton College for six months, he decided to educate himself by self-study. In 1828 he enrolled at Trinity College, Cambridge University, where he earned honors in mathematics and classics.
He studied law at Lincoln's Inn in London under Sir Henry James Linton, but never practiced. Instead he turned to writing poetry and fiction. His first collection of poems was published in 1833 under the name "Alfred Tennyson." He went on to publish several more volumes of poetry before publishing his first novel, Princess (1835).
It was followed by Poems (1836), The Princess (1837), Idylls of the King (1842), Tales from Shakespeare (1844), The Princess again (1848), Locksley Hall (1852), Michael series (1855), The Princess's Return (1860) and The Passing of Arthur