The Burning of Lord Byron’s Salacious Memoirs
Were the revelations in Lord Byron's memoirs so scandalous that his closest friends decided to burn them, rather than risk the damage to his—and his loved ones—reputations?
Photo Illustration by Lyne Lucien/The Daily Beast
He kept a bear as a pet while attending Trinity College in Cambridge; he authored a satirical poem “Don Juan,” which many gossiped was based on his personal exploits; his mood would notoriously swing from charming to brooding; and he was rumored to have had an affair with his half sister, not to mention engaged in many other amorous exploits that were whispered about among the fair folk of England.
In short, Lord Byron was no saint and everybody knew it.
But the known antics of the bad boy of Georgian England must have paled in comparison to those he tried to disclose in his memoirs, revelations that were so scandalous that his closest friends decided to burn the manuscript rather than risk the damage to his—and his loved ones—reputations.