Regarded as one of the most important British poets, Lord Byron, born as George Gordon Byron, was one of the leading figures of the romantic movement in early 19th century England. Byron's works and outsize personality are prominent in The Vampyre, both as the focus of the letters that open and close the novella, as well as being the source of the inspiration for the vampiric Lord Ruthven.
Byron was born in 1788 in London. His father died when he was just three years old. As a result, Byron inherited his great uncle's title and became the 6th Baron Byron. Byron's mother was a Scottish heiress and the young George spent his early years in Aberdeen, Scotland. Later he studied at Cambridge University.
As an English peer, Byron took his seat in the House of Lords at the age of 21. That same year he traveled through various Mediterranean countries. In 1812 Byron published the first two cantos of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage and gained instant fame for his work.
Due to pressure from a messy divorce, scandalous romantic affairs, and mounting debt, Byron left England in 1816. He spent the summer of 1816 at Lake Geneva with Polidori and the Shelley family. Beginning in 1819, Byron published one of his most famous and enduring works, the epic romantic poem Don Juan.
Throughout his life Byron was known for his scandalous private life and his romantic affairs. For example, his half-sister from his father's first marriage, Augusta Leigh, bore a child that was likely Byron's. Over the course of his life, he had many extramarital romantic relationships that were seen as scandalous at the time, resulting in several children. Most of these were with women, although some historians speculate that Byron was bisexual and had romantic relationships with young men.
After living in Italy, Byron went to Greece in 1823 to join the Greeks' fight for independence from the Ottoman empire. There he died from a fever in 1824.
