title: William Cliffton
text: # William Cliffton
  
  William Cliffton (1771 – December 1799) was a Philadelphian poet and pamphleteer. He is the only identified member of the Anchor Club. He is considered part of the "transitive state" of American poetry.
  
  Born the son of a wealthy Quaker, Cliffton suffered form a blood clot at the age of nineteen, and from then until his death, aged twenty-seven, pursued an almost exclusively literary life, though he took an interest in field sports.
  
  Cliffton was a supporter of William Cobbett. He died in December 1799 from consumption.
  
  ## Works
  
  * A Poetical Rhapsody of the Times.. (as Dick Retort) (1796)
  * A Flight of Fancy (1800)
  