Biography

Edmund Burke. (1729-1797)

Born in Dublin, son of Richard Burke (d. 1761) and Mary Nagle (abt. 1702-1770). Married (1757) to Jane Mary Nugent (1734-1812). Father of the barrister and politician Richard Burke (1758-1794).

Edmune Burke was a prolific politician, author and philsopher, by some considered the founder of modern non-religious political conservatism.

He graduated from Trinity College, Dublin in 1748 and in 1750 started studying law at the Middle Temple in London, which, however, he soon gave up. In 1756 was published his A Vindication of Natural Society: A View of the Miseries and Evils Arising to Mankind and in 1757 his philosophically influential treatise A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful. In 1758 he began publishing, with Robert Dodsley, The Annual Register, an annual political commentary which is still being published to this day.

In 1765 Burke became secretary to the then Prime Minister of England, the Marquess of Rockingham. In 1766 he was elected MP for for the borough of Wendover.

In the 1780s he twice served as Paymaster of the Forces, and from 1783 to 1785 he was even Rector of the University of Glasgow

Life with James Boswell:

Forthcoming. Biography added due to popular demand.

External links:

• Edmund Burke - at Wikipedia

Literature:

Burke wrote numerous essays on philosophical, cultural and political matters. A lot of them are available in various editions from Abebooks .

This article was last updated at January 19 2008 11:29:02 CET

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