Surname: Close Forename(s): John b. 1816. d. 1891. Nationality: English. VIAF.
Printer, bookseller, and poet. Pseudonym: “The Poet Close.” Alternative signature:
“J. Close.” Born in Gunnerside, Swaledale, Yorkshire. Father was a Wesleyan lay preacher
and also had a butcher’s shop where Close first worked until 1852, when Close became
a printer then bookseller. He sold his poetry from a stall in Bowness-in-Windermere.
His Civil List pension was controversial and revoked. Biographical information: Reilly,
Mid-Victorian Poetry, pp. 98-9; Goodridge. (AC)