The letters of Lord Byron, of which about 3,000 are known, range in date from 1798, when Byron was 10 years old, to 9 April 1824, a few days before he died.[1][2] They have long received extraordinary critical praise for their wit, spontaneity and sincerity. Many rate Byron as the greatest letter-writer in English literature,[3][4][5] and consider his letters comparable or superior to his poems as literary achievements.[6][7][8] They have also been called "one of the three great informal autobiographies in English", alongside the diaries of Samuel Pepys and James Boswell.[9] Their literary value is reflected in the huge prices collectors will pay for them; in 2009 a sequence of 15 letters to his friend Francis Hodgson was sold at auction for almost £280,000.[10]