There are no major early biographies of Keats

The first of Thomas and Frances Keats' five children, John Keats was born on October 31, 1795, in London, England. When Thomas first met Frances Jennings, she was working for John Jennings as a stable manager. Thomas, who had a reputation for being charming, vivacious, and respectable, broke down social barriers to win Frances's heart, and the two got married. John's parents showed their kids a lot of love and affection. Particularly John and his mother were quite close.

Keats began his studies in medicine at Guy's Hospital on October 2, 1815. He was a diligent (careful) student, but poetry began to capture his mind more and more. It is believed that Keats was motivated at this time by the audacity displayed in a translation of the Odyssey by the Greek poet Homer by George Chapman (c. 1559-1634). (c. 850 B.C.E. ). In March 1817, his first collection of poems was released. In Edmonton, England, Keats signed on as an apothecary's (druggist) apprentice in 1811 in order to master a craft while receiving little or no remuneration.

Surprisingly none of Keats’s literary friends were able to enlighten anyone about the poet after his death. There was neither a publication of a personal memoir or a biography or his poetry that remained in manuscript by anyone who had been close to him. Though several of them, including Charles Brown, John Hamilton Reynolds, John Taylor and Richard Woodhouse, had fully desired and intended to do the same. However, mutual jealousies and dislikes sabotaged any such undertaking.