 The Examiner 1808-01-03: Issue 1 | |
| Founder(s) | Leigh Hunt and John Hunt |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1808 |
| Ceased publication | 1886 |
The Examiner was a weekly paper founded by Leigh and John Hunt in 1808. [1] For the first fifty years it was a leading intellectual journal expounding radical principles, but from 1865 it repeatedly changed hands and political allegiance, resulting in a rapid decline in readership and loss of purpose.
While The Examiner was in the hands of John and Leigh Hunt, the sub-title was "A Sunday paper, on politics, domestic economy, and theatricals", [2] and the newspaper devoted itself to providing independent reports on each of these areas. It consistently published leading writers of the day, including Lord Byron, Mary Shelley, Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats and William Hazlitt. The Hunt brothers failed in their initial aspiration to refuse advertisements in an effort to increase impartiality. In the first edition, the editor claimed The Examiner would pursue "truth for its sole object"; [3] the paper's radical reformist principles resulted in a series of high-profile prosecutions of the editors. A tradition of publishing accurate news and witty criticisms of domestic and foreign politics was continued by Albany Fonblanque, who took over the paper in 1828.
Until Fonblanque sold The Examiner in the mid-1860s, the newspaper took the form of a sixteen-page journal priced at 6d, designed to be kept and repeatedly referred to.
Albany Fonblanque, the journal's political commentator since 1826, took over The Examiner in 1830, serving as editor until 1847. He brought in such contributors as John Stuart Mill, John Forster, William Makepeace Thackeray, and most notably Charles Dickens. [4] Fonblanque also wrote the first notice of Sketches by Boz (28 February 1836) and of The Pickwick Papers (4 September 1836). Forster became the magazine's literary editor in 1835, and succeeded Fonblanque as editor from 1847 to 1855. Forster himself was succeeded by Marmion Savage. [5]
The Examiner's reputation was undermined when the new owner, William McCullagh Torrens, halved the price of the publication in 1867. Although its tradition of radical intellectual commentaries was revived in the 1870s under the editorship of William Minto, The Examiner was repeatedly sold until the final edition appeared in February 1881.
The magazine ceased publication in 1886.
"Ozymandias" is a sonnet written by the English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822). It was first published in the 11 January 1818 issue of The Examiner of London. The poem was included the following year in Shelley's collection Rosalind and Helen, A Modern Eclogue; with Other Poems, and in a posthumous compilation of his poems published in 1826.
James Henry Leigh Hunt, best known as Leigh Hunt, was an English critic, essayist and poet.
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1818.
John Forster was an important Victorian English biographer and literary critic.
Albany William Fonblanque was a celebrated English journalist, and by his own example a reformer of the journalist's profession.
Walter Savage Landor was an English writer, poet, and activist. His best known works were the prose Imaginary Conversations, and the poem "Rose Aylmer," but the critical acclaim he received from contemporary poets and reviewers was not matched by public popularity. As remarkable as his work was, it was equalled by his rumbustious character and lively temperament. Both his writing and political activism, such as his support for Lajos Kossuth and Giuseppe Garibaldi, were imbued with his passion for liberal and republican causes. He befriended and influenced the next generation of literary reformers such as Charles Dickens and Robert Browning.
Charles Wentworth Dilke (1789–1864) was an English liberal critic and writer on literature.
The Quarterly Review was a literary and political periodical founded in March 1809 by London publishing house John Murray. It ceased publication in 1967. It was referred to as The London Quarterly Review, as reprinted by Leonard Scott, for an American edition.
The Daily News was a national daily newspaper in the United Kingdom published from 1846 to 1930.
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.
Robert Barnabas Brough was an English writer. He wrote poetry, novels and plays and was a contributor to many periodicals.
The bibliography of Charles Dickens (1812–1870) includes more than a dozen major novels, many short stories, several plays, several non-fiction books, and individual essays and articles. Dickens's novels were serialized initially in weekly or monthly magazines, then reprinted in standard book formats.
"A Defence of Poetry" is an essay by the English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, written in 1821 and first published posthumously in 1840 in Essays, Letters from Abroad, Translations and Fragments by Edward Moxon in London. It contains Shelley's famous claim that "poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world".
Charles Kent (1823-1902) was an English poet, biographer, and journalist, born in London. After completing his education at Prior Park and Oscott, he became editor of the Sun (1845–70), studied law at the same time and was called to the bar in 1859 as a member of Middle Temple, but thereafter devoted himself to literature. He edited Weekly Register, a Roman Catholic paper (1874–81).
Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his achievements in poetry grew steadily following his death and he became an important influence on subsequent generations of poets including Robert Browning, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Thomas Hardy, and W. B. Yeats. American literary critic Harold Bloom describes him as "a superb craftsman, a lyric poet without rival, and surely one of the most advanced sceptical intellects ever to write a poem."
Samuel Laurence was a British portrait painter.
Marmion Wilme Savage (1803–1872), also known as Marmion Wilard Savage, was an Irish novelist and journalist.
George Keats was a British-American businessman and civic leader in Louisville, Kentucky, as it emerged from a frontier entrepôt into a mercantile centre of the old northwest. He was also the younger brother of the Romantic poet John Keats.
The Glasgow Argus was a Scottish newspaper, published biweekly from 1833 to 1847. It took a reforming editorial line, supporting abolitionism and opposing the Corn Laws. The Argus was perceived as the paper of the supporters of the Glasgow merchant and politician James Oswald.
Media related to Examiner at Wikimedia Commons   | This United Kingdom newspaper–related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
