The imaginative impact of Keatss life his orphaned childhood, his letters, his poetry, his friendships, his illness, his agonizing love affair has continued unbroken for nearly two hundred years New York Review of Books Keatss jazz-like improvisations, which give us, like no other writing in English, the actual rush of a man thinking, a mind hurtling forward unpredictably and sweeping us along -- Morris Dickstein New York Times He left behind him some of Britains best-loved poetry -- Alison Flood Guardian A truly radical poet -- Lesley McDowell Independent From the Back Cover A thing of beauty is a joy for ever About the Author John Keats was born in London in 1795. He and his siblings were orphaned at a young age - his father died in a riding accident in 1804 and his mother died six years later.