Rats, I would have taken Shakespeare for my writer; I love his works.
I will move on to
Explorer, and happily pick a crazy old Brit who reminds me somewhat of Sutter. In that this man also could "do whatever he wants."
He is
Sir Richard Francis Burton
He has so many accomplishments that it would be difficult to list them all. He was a scientist, writer, linguist, soldier, fencer, traveller, diplomat, soldier, etc.
He spoke 29 languages.
He is considered the first non Muslim European to make the Hajj to Mecca and Medina. At least the first well documented one. He made the trip in disguise and surely would have been killed if discovered.
He translated what is popularly known as the "Arabian Nights" and the "Kama Sutra" He was very interested in sex, and researched everything about it and the local peculiarities whereever he travelled. This amongst many other things made him many enemies in England and abroad.
He spoke out aqainst the rampant colonialisation of Africa, and was very far from the typical English Victorian gentleman.
from Wiki:
"As an obituary described: "... he was ill fitted to run in official harness, and he had a
Byronic love of shocking people, of telling tales against himself that had no foundation in fact."
[28] Ouida reported that "Men at the FO [Foreign Office] ... used to hint dark horrors about Burton, and certainly justly or unjustly he was disliked, feared and suspected ... not for what he had done, but for what he was believed capable of doing".
[
I like that last line.
"Published in this period, but composed on his return journey from Mecca,
The Kasidah[7] has been cited as evidence of Burton's status as a
Sufi. The poem (and Burton's notes and commentary on it) contain layers of Sufic meaning, and seem to have been designed to project Sufi teaching in the West.
[20] "Do what thy manhood bids thee do/ from none but self expect applause;/ He noblest lives and noblest dies/ who makes and keeps his self-made laws" is
The Kasidah's most oft-quoted passage.
When badgered by a priest about killing a man, he reportedly told him that he had "committed every sin the the decalogue."
Burton was involved with several expeditions to find the primary source of the Nile. Was the first European to see Lake Tanganyika.
Here is a link to more about this very interesting man:
http://burtoniana.org/