Matthew Arnold:
Biographical Notes, with Links

• Date of Birth: 24 December 1822. He is born at Laleham, near Staines, in Surrey, the first child of Thomas and Mary.
  
  
• In 1836, he enters the public school of Winchester, but is transferred to Rugby, in Warwickshire, in the following year.
  
  
• Enters Balliol College, Oxford, in October 1841.
  
  
• In 1843, he wins the Newdigate Prize with his poem "Cromwell."
  
  
• At the end of 1844, Arnold graduates from Balliol with a Second Class degree and, in February 1845, he is elected as a Fellow at Oriel College.
  
  
• In 1846, he teaches intermittently as an Assistant Master at Rugby.
  
  
• In April 1847, he begins work as a private secretary for Lord Lansdowne, head of the Committee of the Council on Education.
  
  
• In February 1849, he has a selection of his poetry published as The Strayed Reveller, and Other Poems.
  
  
• He is appointed, in March 1851, by Ralph Lingen, Secretary of the Education Committee, as a School Inspector, and within the week, Arnold is engaged to be married to Lucy Wightman. Their honeymoon vacation, after their wedding in June, takes them to Dover Beach and the Grande Chartreuse.
  
  
• The Arnolds' first-born son, Thomas ("Tommy") is born in July 1852.
  
  
• In October 1852, Arnold publishes more poems in Empedocles on Etna, and Other Poems.
  
  
• In October of the following year, Arnold releases Poems, including his famous Preface. In the same month is born the Arnolds' second son, Trevenen ("Budge").
  
  
• A third son, Richard Penrose ("Dicky"), is born in November 1855.
  
  
• In May 1857, Arnold is elected as Professor of Poetry at Oxford, and in November, he begins lectures "On the Modern Element in Literature."
  
  
• A daughter, Lucy Charlotte, is born to the Arnolds on Christmas Day, 1858.
  
  
• Arnold is appointed in 1859 to the Newcastle Commission in order to conduct research on primary schools in France, Switzerland, and Holland. His research results in a book, A French Eton.
  
  
• In November 1860, Arnold begins his lectures "On Translating Homer." These lectures, along with his Inspectorship, occupy him throughout 1861.
  
  
• A second daughter, "Nelly," is born to the Arnolds in February 1861.
  
  
• In 1863, Arnold writes critical essays regarding Bishop Colenso, Dean Stanley, and Spinoza.
  
  
• Arnold is appointed in 1865 to the Taunton Commission to research systems of secondary education in France, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. His research appears as Schools and Universities on the Continent (1868).
  
  
• In 1866, Arnold presents lectures "On the Study of Celtic Literature" at Oxford, and he publishes them the following year.
  
  
• In the same year, he turns to social criticism, first with the essays later collected as Friendship's Garland and then, in 1867 and 1868, with the final Oxford lecture and subsequent essays that comprise Culture and Anarchy.
  
  
• He releases New Poems in July 1867.
  
  
• His youngest son, Basil Francis, is born and dies in January 1868. His oldest son, "Tommy," dies in November after falling from a pony.
  
  
• Arnold turns to biblical criticism in 1869 with St. Paul and Protestantism.
  
  
• In 1870, Arnold is honored by Oxford with the degree of Doctor of Civil Law.
  
  
• "Budge" dies in February 1872.
  
  
• Arnold continues biblical criticism with Literature and Dogma, published in February 1873, its sequel, God and the Bible, released two years later, and Last Essays on Church and Religion, published in 1877.
  
  
• He returns to social and political issues with Mixed Essays and Irish Essays and Others, published respectively in 1879 and 1882.
  
  
• From October 1883 to March 1884, Arnold is engaged in a lecture tour of the United States, which leads to the publication of Discourses in America (1885) and "Civilisation in the United States" (1888).
  
  
• In 1886, he is appointed "Chief Inspector" for the Cross Commission on primary schools.
  
  
• Date of death: 15 April 1888. He is in the progress of reading Robert Elsmere (1888), a best-selling novel by his niece Mary Ward at the time of his death. He is buried in the churchyard at Laleham.
  
  

Note: For this biographical outline, I am primarily indebted to Park Honan's Matthew Arnold: A Life (1981) and Cecil Lang's The Letters of Matthew Arnold, 5 vols. (1996-2001).