William Taylor

William Taylor (1765-1836) was a liberal Unitarian writer and German translator. He was one of Norwich’s leading literary figures in the 1790s as well as an advocate of political reform (he was a founding member of the Norwich Revolution Society in 1789). He was a prominent reviewer for the Monthly Review (1793-99, returning again in 1808), for the Monthly Magazine after 1796, the Annual Review (1802-08), and at times for the Critical Review and The Athenaeum.  In 1793 he issued the first of many brilliant translations of German works: Iphigenia in Tauris (1793), Dialogues of the Gods (1795), Ellenore (1796), and Nathan the Wise (1805), and one of his last works, Historic Survey of German Poetry (1828-30).