William Beckford’s father, who was Lord Mayor of London in 1762 and 1769, was famous for his great wealth and for the fact that he led the opposition to George III’s arbitrary conduct toward the city and its government. His son, William Beckford, was educated by tutors, including the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. At the age of eleven, Beckford inherited his father’s wealth. When he was twenty years old, Beckford published his Biographical Memoirs of Extraordinary Painters, a predominantly humorous volume characterized by satirical barbs at Dutch and Flemish painters. In 1783, he married Lady Margaret Gordon, who died three years later while giving birth to their second daughter.{$S[A]Jenks, Jacquetta Agneta Mariana;Beckford, William}{$S[A]Marlow, Harriet;Beckford, William}

Beckford’s best-known book is Vathek, which is unusual in the history of English literature for having initially been written in French. It is the story of an Arabian caliph who suffers the tortures of the damned and has a wondrous series of supernatural adventures. Beckford wrote the book in French and wanted it to be published in the original language, including three long “episodes” over which he labored. The English translator, the Reverend Samuel Henly, published his English version first, however, in which he omitted Beckford’s name. Obliged to rush the French version into print to claim authorship, Beckford left out the episodes, which were not published until 1909. Other books by Beckford are Modern Novel Writing: Or, The Elegant Enthusiast, published under the pseudonym of the Right Honorable Harriet Marlow; Azemia, published under the pseudonym of Jacquetta Agneta Mariana Jenks; and Recollections of an Excursion to the Monasteries of Alcobaça and Batalha.

Beckford also attained fame for the houses that he built. The first, Fonthill Abbey, was eighteen years in the construction and was reputed to have cost more than a quarter of a million pounds. His second, near Bath, England, where he died in 1844, was also magnificent. Beckford’s later years were marred by his repeated and unsuccessful attempts to obtain a title to add luster to his fortune.