John Forster (writer)
John Forster (born April 2, 1812 in Newcastle upon Tyne , † February 2, 1876 in London ) was an English publicist , historian and biographer . He was friends with Charles Dickens .
Life
John Forster's father, a Unitarian , was a rancher. After obtaining a solid background in classical literature and mathematics at the royal high school in his hometown, Forster was sent to the University of Cambridge in 1828 , but after only a month at that university went to London, where he attended lectures at University College and became a lawyer for the Inner Temple . However, he soon chose a journalistic-literary activity. In 1834 he became engaged to the poet Letitia Elizabeth Landon , but the relationship was soon broken again.
Forster became known through contributions to the radical weekly newspaper The Examiner , on which he was one of the most effective collaborators alongside Albany Fonblanque during the 1830s , and which he himself published from 1847 to 1856. During the 18 years of his collaboration and 10 years of his management, this magazine retained the former glory from which it subsequently declined until it was completely discontinued in the 1880s. He founded the Daily News in 1846 with Charles Dickens, with whom he had a lifelong friendship, and was its chief editor for several months after Dickens' resignation. He was also an employee of other magazines, including a. the Edinburgh Review and Foreign Quarterly Review . He published a collection of his contributions to the latter two sheets as Biographical and historical essays (2 volumes, 1858; 3rd edition 1860). From 1855 he was secretary, from 1861 to 1872 a full member of the Commission for Insane Asylums. He died in London in 1876 at the age of almost 64.
plant
Forster's reputation as a writer founded the work Lives of the Statesmen of the Commonwealth of England (7 volumes, 1836–1839), based on diligent source studies , which was later followed by The Arrest of the Five Members by Charles I - A Chapter of English History rewritten (1860), The debates on the Grand Remonstrance, with an Introductory Essay on English Freedom (1860) and Sir John Eliot: a Biography (2 volumes, 1864, 2nd edition 1871) followed. Forster achieved excellent results in the field of literary biography, which he first entered with Life, adventures and times of Oliver Goldsmith (1848, 8th edition 1889). This excellent work was followed by biographies of his friends Landor and Dickens: Walter Savage Landor (2 volumes, 1868; new edition 1895) and The Life of Charles Dickens (3 volumes, 1871–1874; new edition 2 volumes, 1899), which latter The work was completed by the survivors of Dickens and translated into German by Friedrich Althaus (3 volumes, Berlin 1872–1875). His Life of Jonathan Swift (Volume 1; 1875) remained unfinished.
Art collectors and sponsors
( Leonardo da Vinci , dated around 1487 to 1490)
In 1873 Forster acquired three bindings with Leonardo da Vinci's manuscripts . From Forster's estate, the works, the so-called “ Codex Forster ”, came to the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1876, and the volumes are still in its holdings today.
literature
- John Forster (writer) . In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon . 4th edition. Volume 6, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1885–1892, p. 442.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Forster, John |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English publicist, historian and biographer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 2, 1812 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Newcastle upon Tyne |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 2, 1876 |
| Place of death | London |