John Lang (19 December 1816 – 20 August 1864) was an Australian lawyer and was Australia's first native born novelist. John Earnshaw,
Lang, John (1816 - 1864)
, ''

Australian Dictionary of Biography The ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'' (ADB or AuDB) is a national co-operative enterprise founded and maintained by the Australian National University (ANU) to produce authoritative biographical articles on eminent people in Australia's ...

'', Volume 5, MUP, 1974, pp. 58–59. Retrieved 8 Sep 2009

Early life and education

Lang was born at

Parramatta Parramatta (; ) is a suburb (Australia), suburb and major commercial centre in Greater Western Sydney. Parramatta is located approximately west of the Sydney central business district, Sydney CBD, on the banks of the Parramatta River. It is co ...

, Sydney, Australia, second and posthumous son of Walter Lang, merchant adventurer, and his wife Elizabeth, née Harris. Lang was educated at Sydney College under

William Timothy Cape William Timothy Cape (25 October 1806 – 4 June 1863) was an early school master in Sydney, Australia; several of the Premier of New South Wales, Premiers of New South Wales attended his school. Cape was born at Walworth, London, Walworth, S ...

. Lang went to

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

in March 1837 and, after qualifying as a barrister, returned to Australia.

Career

In 1842, at a public meeting, he seconded a motion proposed by

William Wentworth William Charles Wentworth (August 179020 March 1872) was an Australian statesman, pastoralist, explorer, newspaper editor, lawyer, politician and author, who became one of the wealthiest and most powerful figures in colonial New South Wales. He ...

, that the Crown be petitioned to grant the colony a representative assembly. A few months later he went to India and was successful as a barrister, taking on high-profile clients such as the

Rani of Jhansi The Rani of Jhansi (born Manikarnika Tambe; 1828 or 1835 – 18 June 1858), also known as Rani Lakshmibai, was one of the leading figures of the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The queen consort of the princely state of Jhansi from 1843 to 1853, s ...

in her battles against the

British East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

. Lang became a journalist and in 1845 established a paper, the ''Mofussilite'', at

Meerut Meerut (, ISO 15919, ISO: ''Mēraṭh'') is a city in the western region of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Located in the Meerut district, it is northeast of the national capital, New Delhi, and is ...

. He also wrote some novels which appeared serially in the ''Mofussilite'' and in ''Fraser's Magazine''. These began to be published in book form in 1853, ''The Wetherbys'' and ''Too Clever by Half'' both 1853, followed by ''Too Much Alike'' (1854), ''The Forger's Wife'' (1855, said to be the first English-language detective novel), ''Captain Macdonald'' (1856), ''Will He Marry Her'' (1858), ''The Ex-Wife'' (1858), ''My Friend's Wife'' (1859), ''The Secret Police'' (1859), and ''Botany Bay; or True Stories of the Early Days of Australia'' (1859). Some of these were very popular and were often reprinted, the twelfth edition of ''Too Clever by Half'' appearing in 1878. ''Botany Bay'' has been reprinted several times, sometimes under the titles of ''Clever Criminals'', or ''Remarkable Convicts''. ''Fisher's Ghost'' reprints 10 of the 13 stories of Botany Bay. Lang also published ''Geraldine, A Ballad'' in 1854, and in 1859 ''Wanderings in India and other Sketches'' reprinted from ''Household Words''. Lang visited London in 1859, and was for a short time at Calcutta where he issued the ''Optimist''. Lang died in the

hill station A hill station is a touristic town located at a higher elevation than the nearby plain or valley. The English term was originally used mostly in Western imperialism in Asia, colonial Asia, but also in Africa (albeit rarely), for towns founded by ...

Mussoorie Mussoorie () is a hill station and a municipal board, in Dehradun city in the Dehradun district of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is about from the state capital of Dehradun and north of the national capital of New Delhi. The hil ...

, India, and is buried in Camel's Back Cemetery, which enjoys a wide vista of the Lower Western

Himalaya The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than 100 pea ...

, which Lang loved greatly. His grave had been lost for almost a century until it was sought out and discovered by the writer

Ruskin Bond Ruskin Bond (born 19 May 1934) is an Indian author. His first novel, ''The Room on the Roof'', published in 1956, received the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. Bond has authored more than 500 short stories, essays, and novels which includes 69 books ...

.Bond, Ruskin(2000). The Lamp is Lit, Penguin India.

References

*
Rory Medcalf, 'John Lang, our Forgotten Indian Envoy'

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British political and cultural news magazine. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving magazine in the world. ''The Spectator'' is politically conservative, and its principal subject a ...

/Australia, 3 April 2010

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lang, John 1816 births 1864 deaths 19th-century Australian novelists Australian male novelists 19th-century Australian lawyers People from Meerut 19th-century Indian male writers Expatriates in British India Colony of New South Wales people 19th-century Australian short story writers Australian male short story writers Australian crime fiction writers Writers from Sydney Alumni of the University of Cambridge 19th-century Australian journalists Australian male journalists Australian publishers (people) Australian magazine editors Detective fiction writers Australian mystery writers Australian travel writers Australian children's writers