William Maginn and the British Press A Critical Biography [Hardcover]

The first scholarly treatment of the life of William Maginn (1794-1842), David Latan?s meticulously researched biography follows Maginns life from his early days in Ireland through his career in Paris and London as political journalist and writer and finally to his sad decline and incarceration in debtors prison. A founding editor of the daily Standard (1827), Maginn was a prodigal author and editor. He was an early and influential contributor to Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine, and a writer from the Tory side for The Age, New Times, English Gentleman, Representative, John Bull, and many other papers. In 1830, he launched Frasers Magazine for Town and Country, the early venue for such Victorians as Thackeray and Carlyle, and he was intimately involved with the poet 'L.E.L.' In 1837, he wrote the prologue for the first issue of Bentleys Miscellany, edited by Dickens. Through painstaking archival research into Maginns surviving letters and manuscripts, as well as those of his associates, Latan? restores Maginn to his proper place in the history of nineteenth-century print culture. His book is essential reading for nineteenth-century scholars, historians of the book and periodical, and anyone interested in questions of authorship in the period.Contents: Preface; Part I 1794-1823: 'And the city is Cork!'; The Cork correspondent; 'The whiskey of the compound'. Part II 1824-1829: London is London; 'A very prosopopoeia of the public press'; Bearing the Standard. Part III 1830-1835: Regina; 'Something shabby about Bulwer'; 'Put the rogues to rout in the year 32'; 'Prison spikes'; 'A strange mystery Attila and the sweep. Part IV 1836-1842: 'Shot at by Doctor Maginn!'; 'The wits of Bentley'; 'Can unhappy poverty sing songs?'; The heart leaps up; 'Reduced to want'; Epilogue: 'a famous subject for moralizing'; Appendices; Sources; Index.David E. Latan? is Professor of English at Virginia Commonwealth University, USA.