Author of "Vathek," son of a rich alderman of London, who bequeathed him property to the value of £100,000 per annum; kept spending his fortune on extravagancies and vagaries; wrote "Vathek," an Arabian tale, when a youth of twenty-two, at a sitting of three days and two nights, a work which established his reputation as one of the first of the imaginative writers of his country. He wrote two volumes of travels in Italy, but his fame rests on his "Vathek" alone (1759-1844).