Biography
Born in Market Weighton within the East Riding of Yorkshire, William was the fourth son in a family of thirteen and weighed 14 pounds (6.35 kg) at birth. His father, a master tailor measured 5 feet 9 inches, while his siblings and mother Anne were of average size, although one sister who died in an accident at age 16 was tall.
He was said to have been teased at school because of his height, though many students were scared of him. Teachers at the school were said to have punished misbehaving students by getting Bradley to lift them onto high cross beams, until the teacher decided to have them taken down again. After leaving school he worked on a farm near the town of Pocklington, earning less than 50p a week.
Read more about this topic: William Bradley (giant)
Famous quotes containing the word biography:
“Just how difficult it is to write biography can be reckoned by anybody who sits down and considers just how many people know the real truth about his or her love affairs.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)
“There never was a good biography of a good novelist. There couldn’t be. He is too many people, if he’s any good.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)
“A great biography should, like the close of a great drama, leave behind it a feeling of serenity. We collect into a small bunch the flowers, the few flowers, which brought sweetness into a life, and present it as an offering to an accomplished destiny. It is the dying refrain of a completed song, the final verse of a finished poem.”
—André Maurois (1885–1967)