On this week's episode, The Many Lives of Poet John Dunn.

From the Folger Shakespeare Library, this is Shakespeare Unlimited.

I'm Michael Whitmore, the Folger director.

The Folger is best known for its Shakespeare collection, but we actually have a lot of other material from Shakespeare's time,

like the letters of poet and preacher John Dunn.

Dunn wrote some of the most complex and intellectually dazzling poetry of the 17th century,

and the Folger's collection includes a third of all Dunn's existing letters.

Like Shakespeare, Dunn didn't leave behind any journals or papers, and he destroyed all the letters he received,

so this one-way correspondence is essential reading for anyone attempting to trace Dunn's life.

But what a life! Born into a Catholic family at a perilous time, Dunn witnessed Queen Elizabeth's persecution

of Catholics at close range.

As a young man at Oxford, Cambridge, and the Inns of Court, Dunn gained notoriety for poetry

that bent rules of genre and taste.

His love poetry still stuns with its brilliant wit and earthy allure.

But Dunn didn't want the life of a poet. He aimed for a position among the country's elite.

Dunn's secret marriage to Anne Moore doomed those hopes. Her father was against the match and Dunn's

employer fired him. The Dunns endured years of

poverty. But that's not where his story ends. Having converted to the Church of England, Dunn

entered the priesthood and became the dean of St. Paul's Cathedral. It was a job for a star,

and Dunn didn't disappoint. His sermons became famous, drawing enormous crowds.

Author Catherine Rundle tells Dunn's extraordinary story in a new biography, Super Infinite,

The Transformations of John Dunn.

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