Eighteenth century Gothic horror drew on these sources in such works as Vathek ( 1786 ) by William Beckford, The Mysteries of Udolpho ( 1794 ) and The Italian ( 1796 ) by Ann Radcliffe and The Monk ( 1797 ) by Matthew Lewis.

He also drew up plans to attack French islands in the Caribbean the following year at the suggestion of a Jamaican sugar planter William Beckford.

* William Thomas Beckford — Vathek ( 1786 )

In 1766, Sir Peter Beckford ( 1740 – 1811 ), a wealthy Englishman and cousin of the novelist William Thomas Beckford, twice Lord Mayor of London, visited Rome.

Patrons who have influenced taste are also represented by works of art from their collections, these include: Horace Walpole ( a major influence on the Gothic Revival ), William Thomas Beckford and Thomas Hope.

Other ancestors include William Thomas Beckford, the scandalous 18th century English collector, tastemaker, writer, and eccentric.

Vathek ( 1786 ), by William Beckford, and The Monk ( 1796 ), by Matthew Lewis, were further notable early works in both the Gothic and horror genres.

" In a letter to Frank Belknap Long, Lovecraft ties this plot germ to Vathek, a novel by William Beckford about a supernatural caliph.

William Beckford

William Beckford ( 19 December 1709 – 21 June 1770 ) was a well-known political figure in 18th century London, who twice held the office of Lord Mayor of London ( 1762 and 1769 ).

He was, and is, often referred to as " Alderman Beckford " to distinguish him from his son William Thomas Beckford, the author, art collector and builder of follies.

His only child by this marriage was William Thomas Beckford, born at Fonthill Splendens in 1760.

de: William Beckford der Ältere

William Thomas Beckford ( 1 October 1760 – 2 May 1844 ), usually known as William Beckford, was an English novelist, a profligate and consummately knowledgeable art collector and patron of works of decorative art, a critic, travel writer and sometime politician, reputed at one stage in his life to be the richest commoner in England.

His parents were William Beckford and Maria Hamilton, daughter of Hon.

At the age of ten, he inherited a fortune from his father William Beckford, usually referred to as " Alderman Beckford ", who had been twice a Lord Mayor of the City of Londonconsisting of £ 1 million in cash (£ as of ),, land at Fonthill ( including the Palladian mansion Fonthill Splendens ) in Wiltshire, and several slave ( sugar ) plantations in Jamaica.

However, Beckford was bisexual and chose self-exile from British society when his letters to William Courtenay, later 9th Earl of Devon, were intercepted by the boy's uncle, who advertised the affair in the newspapers .. Courtenay was just ten years old on first meeting Beckford.

Having studied under Sir William Chambers and Alexander Cozens, Beckford journeyed in Italy in 1782 and promptly wrote a book on his travels: Dreams, Waking Thoughts and Incidents ( 1783 ).

In 1829 he married Henrietta Preston, sister of Kentucky politician and future civil war general William Preston.

* 1874 – William B. Bankhead, American politician ( d. 1940 )

* 1790 – William Wentworth, Australian explorer and politician ( d. 1872 )

* 1770 – William Clark, American soldier, explorer, and politician ( d. 1838 )

* 1877 – William B. Ogden, American politician, 1st Mayor of Chicago ( b. 1805 )

* 1940 – William Cohen, American politician and author, 20th United States Secretary of Defense

* 1808 – William W. Chapman, American politician ( d. 1892 )

* 1782 – William Talbot, 1st Earl Talbot, English politician ( b. 1710 )

* 1906 – William Joyce, Irish-American fascist politician and Nazi propaganda broadcaster ( d. 1946 )

* 1944 – William Stephens, American politician ( b. 1859 )

* 1661 – Sir William Brereton, 1st Baronet, English soldier and politician ( b. 1604 )

William Jefferson " Bill " Clinton ( born William Jefferson Blythe III ; August 19, 1946 ) is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001.

Critic William Kuhn argued that much of his fiction can be read as " the memoirs he never wrote ", revealing the inner life of a politician for whom the norms of Victorian public life appeared to represent a social straitjacket – particularly with regard to his allegedly " ambiguous sexuality.

Sir William Harcourt, a prominent Liberal politician in the Victorian era, said this about liberalism in 1872:

More recently, William D. Rubinstein, Professor of Modern History at Aberystwyth University, Wales, wrote that Conservative politician and pro-Zionist Leo Amery, as Assistant Secretary to the British war cabinet in 1917, was the main author of the Balfour Declaration.

* Frederick William Cumberland ( 1821 – 1881 ), engineer and politician

* 2005 – William Proxmire, American politician ( b. 1915 )

* 1859 – William Stephens, American politician and 24th Governor of California ( d. 1944 )

* 1878 – William Aberhart, Canadian politician ( d. 1943 )

* 2003 – William V. Roth, Jr., American politician ( b. 1921 )

* William Daum Euler ( 1875 – 1961 ), Canadian politician

* 1809 – William Sprague, American minister and politician from Michigan ( d. 1868 )

* 1995 – J. William Fulbright, American politician ( b. 1905 )

* 1742 – William Hooper, American lawyer and politician, signer of the United States Declaration of Independence ( d. 1790 )