The Borough: a Poem, in Twenty-Four Letters. In two volumes. Volume 1

George Crabbe's life story offers an odd reversal, that of a doctor who fell back on poetry in order to reach financial stability. After finishing medical school, Crabbe could find no work as a surgeon in his hometown, and so went off to London to try his hand selling his poetry. Eventually, selling his manuscripts became a trial as well, so Crabbe took holy orders and became a chaplain. He was then able to afford to work on his earthy and morbid poetic sketches, the popularity of which surged in his later years and still lasts today. His most famous work, The Borough, was adapted into the opera Peter Grimes by Benjamin Britten in 1945.