Throughout his professional life, the poet Thomas Moore (1779–1852) was variously celebrated and vilified for both his verse and his politics. Born in Dublin, he remained an ardent Irish patriot until his death. This eight-volume collection of Moore's memoirs, diaries and letters, edited by his friend Lord John Russell (1792–1878) and first published between 1853 and 1856, provides rare insights into a man whose genius was applauded by the Morning Chronicle as 'embracing almost all sides of imaginative literature, of criticism and philosophy'. Volume 1 contains Moore's incomplete memoir, described by the Manchester Times as 'a readable and gossiping article', as well as an account of his infamous abortive duel with the critic Francis Jeffrey, and his personal correspondence from the period 1793–1813.