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Gads Hill Place
'Gad's Hill Place'' in Higham, Kent, sometimes spelt Gadshill Place and Gads Hill Place, was the country home of Charles Dickens. Today the building is the independent Gad's Hill School. The house was built in 1780 for a former Mayor of Rochester, Thomas Stephens, opposite the present Sir John Falstaff Public House. Gad's Hill is where Falstaff commits the robbery that begins Shakespeare's ''Henriad'' trilogy (''Henry IV, Part 1'', ''Henry IV, Part 2'' and ''Henry V''). Dickens Charles Dickens first saw the mansion when he was 'not half as old as 9', when his father John Dickens told Charles that if he worked hard enough, one day he would own it or just such a house. Forster, John ''The Life of Charles Dickens'' Published by Cecil Palmer, London (1872-74) As a boy, Dickens would often walk from Chatham to Gad's Hill Place as he wished to see it again and again as an image of his possible future. Ackroyd, Peter ''Dickens'' Published by Sinclair-Stevenson Ltd (1990) p. 3 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sinclair-Stevenson Ltd
Sinclair-Stevenson Ltd was a British publisher founded in 1989 by Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson. Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson became an editor at Hamish Hamilton Hamish Hamilton Limited is a publishing imprint and originally a British publishing house, founded in 1931 eponymously by the half- Scot half- American Jamie Hamilton (''Hamish'' is the vocative form of the Gaelic Seumas eaning James ''Jame ... in 1961. Thirteen years later in 1974 he became managing director, establishing "a close-knit and successful team", he "developed an unrivalled reputation for looking after his authors". Then in 1989 he resigned and set up his own company, Sinclair-Stevenson Ltd, and took a number of staff and authors with him. Sinclair-Stevenson Ltd was subsumed into the Random House Group in February 1997 with the purchase of the Reed Consumer Trade Division. References External links * Publishing companies established in 1989 Book publishing companies based in London Compani ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Fechter
Charles Albert Fechter (23 October 1824 – 5 August 1879) was an Anglo-French actor. Biography Fechter was born, probably in London, of French parents, although his mother was of Piedmontese and his father of German extraction. As a boy he had ambitions to be a sculptor but discovered his talent while appearing in some private theatricals. In 1841 he joined a travelling company that was going to Italy. The tour was a failure, and the company broke up; Fechter returned home and resumed the study of sculpture. At the same time he attended classes at the Conservatoire with the view of gaining admission to the Comédie-Française. Late in 1844 he won the grand medal of the Académie des Beaux-Arts with a piece of sculpture, and made his debut at the Comédie-Française as Seide in Voltaire's '' Mahomet'' and Valère in Molière's ''Tartuffe''. He acquitted himself with credit; but, tired of the small parts he found himself condemned to play, returned again to his sculptor's studio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Powell Frith
William Powell Frith (9 January 1819 – 2 November 1909) was an English painter specialising in genre subjects and panoramic narrative works of life in the Victorian era. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1853, presenting ''The Sleeping Model'' as his Diploma work. He has been described as the "greatest British painter of the social scene since Hogarth". Early life William Powell Frith was born in Aldfield, near Ripon in the then West Riding of Yorkshire on 9 January 1819. He had originally intended to be an auctioneer. His mother was Jane Frith, née Powell (1779–1851). Frith was encouraged to take up art by his father, a hotelier in Harrogate. Frith was great uncle and an advisor to the English school portrait painter Henry Keyworth Raine (1872–1932). He moved to London in 1835 where he began his formal art studies at Sass's Academy in Charlotte Street, before attending the Royal Academy Schools. Frith started his career as a portrait painter and first ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander William Kinglake
Alexander William Kinglake (5 August 1809 – 2 January 1891) was an English orientalist travel writer and historian. He was born near Taunton, Somerset, and educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge. He was called to the bar in 1837, and built up a thriving legal practice, which, in 1856, he abandoned to devote himself to literature and public life. His first literary venture was ''Eothen; or Traces of travel brought home from the East'' (London: J. Ollivier, 1844), a very popular work of Eastern travel, apparently first published anonymously, in which he described a journey he made about ten years earlier in Syria, Palestine and Egypt, together with his Eton contemporary Lord Pollington. Elliot Warburton said it evoked "the East itself in vital actual reality" and it was instantly successful. However, his ''magnum opus'' was ''The Invasion of Crimea: Its Origin, and an Account of its Progress down to the Death of Lord Raglan'', in 8 volumes, published fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Leech (caricaturist)
John Leech (29 August 1817 – 29 October 1864) was a British caricaturist and illustrator. He was best known for his work for ''Punch (magazine), Punch'', a humorous magazine for a broad middle-class audience, combining verbal and graphic political satire with light social comedy. Leech catered to contemporary prejudices, such as anti-Americanism and antisemitism and supported acceptable social reforms. Leech's critical yet humorous cartoons on the Crimean War helped shape public attitudes toward heroism, warfare, and Britons' role in the world. Leech also enjoys fame as the first illustrator of Charles Dickens' 1843 novella ''A Christmas Carol''. He was furthermore a pioneer in comics, creating the recurring character ''Mr. Briggs'' and some sequential illustrated gags. Early life John Leech was born in London. His father, a native of Ireland, was the landlord of the London Coffee House on Ludgate Hill, "a man", on the testimony of those who knew him, "of fine culture, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Percy Hethrington Fitzgerald
Percy Hetherington Fitzgerald (26 April 1830 – 24 November 1925) was an Anglo-Irish author and critic, painter and sculptor. Fitzgerald was born in Ireland at Fane Valley, County Louth, the son of Thomas FitzGerald. He was educated at Belvedere college Dublin, Stonyhurst College, Lancashire, and at Trinity College, Dublin. He was called to the Irish bar and was for a time crown prosecutor on the northeastern circuit. After moving to London, he became a contributor to Charles Dickens's magazine, ''Household Words'', and later dramatic critic for the ''Observer'' and the ''Whitehall Review''. Among his many writings are numerous biographies and works relating to the history of the theatre. He wrote: ''Life of Sterne''(1864) (See Sterne.); 2nd edition; revised & enlarged (1896); reprinted 1904 * ''Charles Lamb'' (1866) (See Charles Lamb.) ''Life of David Garrick''(1868) (See David Garrick.) The Kembles(1871) ''The Romance of the English Stage''(1874) * ''Croker’s Boswell ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Fothergill Chorley
Henry Fothergill Chorley (15 December 1808 – 16 February 1872) was an English literary, painting and music critic, writer and editor. He was also an author of novels, drama, poetry and lyrics. Chorley was a prolific and important music and literary critic and music gossip columnist of the mid-nineteenth century and wrote extensively about music in London and in Europe. His opera libretti and works of fiction were far less successful. He is perhaps best remembered today for his lyrics to " The Long Day Closes", a part song set by Arthur Sullivan in 1868. Life and career Chorley was born in Blackley Hurst, near Billinge, Lancashire, England. Chorley was the youngest of four children of Quaker parents, John Chorley (1771–1816), an iron worker and lock maker, and Jane Chorley, née Wilkinson (1779–1851). Chorley's father died, leaving his mother alone with young children. Jane Chorley moved her family to Liverpool to help take care of her half-brother, Dr Rutter, when ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marcus Stone
Marcus Clayton Stone (4 July 1840 – 24 March 1921) was an English painter. Stone was born in London, and was educated at the Royal Academy. Life Marcus Clayton Stone was the son of Frank Stone ARA. Marcus was trained by his father and began to exhibit at the Royal Academy, before he was eighteen. A few years later he illustrated, with much success, books by Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, and other writers who were friends of his family. Stone was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1877, and Academician in 1887. In his earlier pictures, he dealt much with historical incidents, but in his later work, he occupied himself chiefly with a particular type of dainty sentiment, treated with much charm, refinement and executive skill. One of his canvases is in Tate. Most of his works have been engraved, and medals were awarded to him at exhibitions in all parts of the world. Stone and fellow painter Luke Fildes both lived in Melbury Road, Holland Park, in houses d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wilkie Collins
William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 – 23 September 1889) was an English novelist and playwright known especially for ''The Woman in White (novel), The Woman in White'' (1860), a mystery novel and early sensation novel, and for ''The Moonstone'' (1868), which established many of the ground rules of the modern detective novel and is also perhaps the earliest clear example of the police procedural genre. Born to the London painter William Collins (painter), William Collins and his wife, Harriet Geddes, he moved with them to Italy when he was twelve, living there and in France for two years, learning both Italian language, Italian and French language, French. He worked initially as a tea merchant. After ''Antonina (Collins novel), Antonina'', his first novel, was published in 1850, Collins met Charles Dickens, who became his friend and mentor. Some of Collins' work appeared in Dickens' journals ''Household Words'' and ''All the Year Round''. They also collaborated on drama and f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Allston Collins
''Convent Thoughts'' (1850–51; Ashmolean Museum, Oxford Charles Allston Collins (London 25 January 1828 – 9 April 1873) was a British painter, writer, and illustrator associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Life and work Early years Collins was born in Hampstead, north London, the son of landscape and genre painter William Collins. His older brother was the novelist Wilkie Collins. He was educated at Stonyhurst College in Lancashire. Painting career Collins met John Everett Millais and became influenced by the ideas of the Pre-Raphaelites, completing his painting '' Berengaria's Alarm'' in 1850. This depicted the wife of King Richard the Lionheart noticing her missing husband's girdle offered for sale by a peddlar. The flattened modelling, emphasis on pattern making, and imagery of embroidery were all characteristic features of Pre-Raphaelitism. Millais proposed that Collins should become a member of the Brotherhood, but Thomas Woolner and William Mi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include the poems " Paul Revere's Ride", '' The Song of Hiawatha'', and '' Evangeline''. He was the first American to completely translate Dante Alighieri's ''Divine Comedy'' and was one of the fireside poets from New England. Longfellow was born in Portland, District of Maine, Massachusetts (now Portland, Maine). He graduated from Bowdoin College and became a professor there and, later, at Harvard College after studying in Europe. His first major poetry collections were ''Voices of the Night'' (1839) and ''Ballads and Other Poems'' (1841). He retired from teaching in 1854 to focus on his writing, and he lived the remainder of his life in the Revolutionary War headquarters of George Washington in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His first wife, Mary Potter, died in 1835 after a miscarriage. His second wife, Frances Appleton, died in 1861 after sustaining burns ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
