SOURCE: Whitehead, Frank. “Biographical Speculations.” In George Crabbe: A Reappraisal, pp. 209-18. Selinsgrove: Susquehanna University Press, 1995.

In the following essay, Whitehead explores how Crabbe's personal life is revealed in his poetry, and how facts about his life can be used to understand his writing.

Although contemporary literary theory has increasingly ignored or devalued the role of the author in literary works, the reading public at large has continued to show a lively interest in the individual author's life, his personality, and his psychology. In recent years, for example, there has been a flood of new biographies of distinguished poets, novelists, and dramatists, and these have often achieved massive sales. This appetite for intimate personal revelation cannot find a great deal to feed on in Crabbe's published work. His tales are built upon observation rather than self-analysis or self-display; and although he often enables the reader to enter vividly...