John Todhunter was born December 30, 1839, in Dublin, Ireland.

He was the eldest son of a Quaker merchant of English origin. He studied medicine at the Trinity College Medical School receiving his Bachelor of medicine in 1867, and later on his Doctorate of Medicine degree in 1871. However, it was easy to notice Todhunter”s appreciation for literature. While studying medicine, he won the Vice-Chancellor”s prize for English Verse three years in a row (1864, 1865 and 1866), and the Gold Medal of the Philosophical Society 1866 for an essay. And if that”s not enough, one year before his DM, he became a Professor of English Literature at Alexandra College.

In 1874, he decided to travel the world and he married Dora L. Digby in 1879.

After visiting places like Egypt, in 1881, he settled in London, where he was a strong pilar of the founding of the Irish Literary Society, among, for example, William Butler Yeats (ring a bell?).

John Todhunter died at Chiswick, London, 25 October 1916.