William Maginn and the British Press

The first scholarly treatment of the life of William Maginn (1794-1842), David Latans 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.