Robert Bell (writer)

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Robert Bell (born January 16, 1800 in Cork , † April 12, 1867 in London ) was an Irish writer and journalist .

life and work

Robert Bell was the son of a high official in the Irish magistracy. He studied at Trinity College , Dublin , where he was one of the founders of the Dublin Historical Society . Initially he was employed by the administration in Dublin and took over the editing of the Patriot , a government organ. He also wrote articles for the Dublin Inquisitor , which he had re-launched with others. He has also written plays, including The Double Disguise and Comic Lectures . In 1828 he went to London, where he published a series of reminiscences in the New Monthly Magazine and successfully edited the first weekly political-fiction paper, Atlas . Through this journal he drew himself to a political process with Lord Lyndhurst in 1829 , in which he essentially obtained an acquittal for himself through self-defense against his influential opponent.

Bell then wrote a History of Russia (3 vols., 1836–38; new ed. 1853), the Lives of English Dramatists (with Dunham et al., 2 vol., 1837) and Lives of the English Poets (2nd ed ., 1837) for Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia Vol., 1839) and edited the fifth and last volume of Southey's Lives of the British Admirals (1840) and, with William Wallace, volumes 4–10 of James Mackintosh's History of England (1830–40) for the same collection . After his resignation from the editorial office of the Atlas , he founded the Monthly Chronicle in 1840 with Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton and Lardner , which later became his property. His five-act comedies Marriage (1842), Mothers and Daughters (1843) and Temper (1847), written during this period, were performed with applause.

Bell also wrote several independent historical works such as Outlines of China (1845) and the panegyric Life of George Canning (1846). In Wayside Pictures through France, Belgium, and Holland (1849; new edition 1858) he reported in an appealing way about one of his vacation trips to mainland Europe, and in the second edition of this work (1858) he also included the Trip up the Rhine up. He also wrote the two novels Hearts and Altars (3 vols., 1852) and The Ladder of Gold (3 vols., 1856). In Bohns Library he published a collection of historical ballads under the title Early Ballads, Illustrative of History, Traditions and Customs (1846; new edition 1877). With GW Johnson he edited the Memorials of the Civil War: The Correspondence of the Fairfax Family (1849). But his Annotated Edition of the British Poets (24 vols., 1854–57; new edition 29 vols., 1866), anthologies of English poetry, whose authors range chronologically from Chaucer to Cowper , is particularly well known . He also edited Golden Leaves from the Works of the Poets and Painters (1863; new edition 1872), Art and Song (1867) and the Poetical Works of Butler (1867).

Bell was director of the Royal Literary Fund and supported less successful writers. Most recently, until his death, he edited the monthly Home News, which was read by British settlers in the Orient and India . He died in London on April 12, 1867 at the age of 67 and, as he wished, was buried near the grave of his friend William Makepeace Thackeray in Kensal Green Cemetery .

literature

personal data
SURNAME Bell, Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Irish writer and journalist
DATE OF BIRTH January 16, 1800
PLACE OF BIRTH Cork
DATE OF DEATH April 12, 1867
Place of death London