It would be fair to describe the great English novelist and poet Thomas Hardy as a Renaissance man, although he may have had a more somber viewpoint than many.
Born on June 2, 1840, near the market town of Dorchester, England, and son of a stonemason and builder, Hardy lacked the funds to pursue a top-tier education. Instead, he learned architecture, for which he exhibited prodigious skill. In 1862, he enrolled in Kingâs College in London, where he won prizes from the Royal Institute of British Architects and others for his work on a church and railway station.
With his plebian upbringing, Hardy never felt comfortable with the social class divisions evident in London, and he moved back to Dorset after five years. He designed and built the red brick Queen Anne-style home called Max Gate, where he lived until his death in 1928. It is now managed by the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest.