'The Corsair,' Lord Byron's Best-Seller

NPR

Published February 5, 2005 at 12:00 AM EST

This portrait of George Gordon, Lord Byron, was painted by Thomas Phillips in 1814, the year "The Corsair" was published.

This week in 1814, the poet George Gordon, Lord Byron, made publishing history. His poem "The Corsair" sold out its entire first run, all 10,000 copies, in London in one day.

"The Corsair" is the tale of a pirate captain willing to risk the love of his life to save a slave in a Turkish harem.

Steven Jones, a Byron scholar who teaches at Chicago's Loyola University, discusses the great work.

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