John Wade (1788–1875) was a British journalist and author, connected with the press throughout his career. He contributed to many periodicals, and was a leader-writer on ''
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 ...
'' when that journal was under
Robert Stephen Rintoul's editorship between 1828 and 1858.
Life
In early life Wade worked for at least a decade as a wool-sorter. Encouraged by
Francis Place
Francis Place (3 November 1771, London – 1 January 1854, London) was an English social reformer described as "a ubiquitous figure in the machinery of radical London."
Background and early life
He was an illegitimate son of Simon Place and M ...
and others, he took up journalism in London, initially from 1818 editing the ''Gorgon''. Writing never made him much money, and his main income in his later years was a civil-list pension of £50, granted to him on 19 June 1862 by
Lord Palmerston
Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (20 October 1784 – 18 October 1865), known as Lord Palmerston, was a British statesman and politician who served as prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1855 to 1858 and from 1859 to 1865. A m ...
, mainly on the representations of the publisher
Effingham Wilson
Effingham William Wilson (28 September 1785 – 9 June 1868) was a 19th-century English political radicalism, radical publisher and bookseller. His main interests were in economics and politics, but he also published poetry.
Early life
Wil ...
.
Wade was a vice-president of the historical section of the Institution d'Afrique of Paris. He died at Chelsea on 29 September 1875, and was buried in
Kensal Green cemetery
Kensal Green Cemetery is a cemetery in the Kensal Green area of North Kensington in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in London, England. Inspired by Père Lachaise Cemetery in P ...
on 2 October.
Works
As an author Wade's major success was ''The Black Book, or Corruption Unmasked! Being an Account of Persons, Places, and Sinecures'', 1820–3, 2 vols. Published by Effingham Wilson, and brought out when the reform excitement was commencing, it produced a considerable sensation, and fifty thousand copies were sold. With some alterations in the title, it was reproduced in 1831, 1832, and 1835.
In 1826 he wrote for
Longmans ''The Cabinet Lawyer: a Popular Digest of the Laws of England'', the twenty-fifth edition of which appeared in 1829. Another popular work was ''British History, chronologically arranged'', 1839; supplement 1841; 3rd edit. 1844; 5th edit. 1847. Effingham Wilson paid Wade a weekly salary for years while he was compiling it, and supplied him with works of reference.
Wade also edited an annotated ''Junius, including Letters by the same Writer under other signatures'', (1850, in Bohn's "Standard Library", 2 vols.). Here he was out of his depth, and the imperfections of his edition, and especially of his introduction, were pointed out by
Charles W. Dilke in the ‘Athenæum’ of 2 Feb.
et seq
References
Notes
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
*
{{Latin phrases
E ...
.
[reprinted in Dilke's ‘Papers of a Critic,’ 1875, ii. 47–124]
References
External links
''The Black Book, or Corruption Unmasked''
Attribution
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wade, John
1788 births
1875 deaths
19th-century British writers
Burials at Kensal Green Cemetery
British journalists