George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824) wrote some of the best known and most controversial poems of his period, including Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Cain, Beppo and Don Juan. He was involved in major scandals and disputes, personal, literary and political, from his acrimonious separation from his wife to his defence of Pope's poetry and his persistent satire of Wordsworth and Southey. These areas are among those covered in this concise but comprehensive dictionary. Entries on the poems cover sources, details of composition and publication, and critical responses from Byron's contemporaries to the present. There is also material on his dramatic poems, their production history, and his considerable achievement as a writer of prose, especially in letters, diaries, and such pieces as the unfinished vampire story 'Augustus Darvell'. There is detailed coverage of his relationships with, among others, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Moore, Scott, P.B. Shelley, Mary Shelley, and Keats. Other entries consider his sexuality, his political context, his interest in boxing and swimming, the 'Byronic Hero', Byron in fiction, drama and portraiture, illustrations of his work, and his wide influence on later English and European literature.