Thomas Noon Talfourd

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Thomas Talfourd 1840, engraving by Henry William Pickersgill

Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd (born May 26, 1795 in Reading , Berkshire , † March 13, 1854 in Stafford ) was a British parliamentarian, lawyer and author.

Talfourd published his first volume of poetry during his school days. Nevertheless, he decided to study law, presumably as a student of Joseph Chitty . He published literary critical books. His most successful book during his lifetime was An attempt to estimate the poetical talent of the present age. In this way and with numerous other publications, Talfourd contributed to anchoring the poetry of the time in the public consciousness. As a critic, he wrote primarily for London Magazine and New Monthly . He published his tragedy Ion in 1835, which was performed for one year with William Macready in the leading role in Covent Garden and was a great success.

In 1821 he was admitted as a trial lawyer. The Queen made him serjeant-at-law in 1833. His reputation was that of an honest and good, if not brilliant, lawyer who was serious about his cause and did not resort to dishonest litigation tactics. In 1849 he became a judge on the Court of Common Pleas . As such, he was knighted on January 30, 1850 as a Knight Bachelor ("Sir").

As a writer, he campaigned for the abolition of pillory in the British penal system. For him, the pillory was unsuitable for reforming criminals and would only fix them in their life path, which ultimately led to the gallows.

In 1835 he was elected for the first time as MP for Reading in the British House of Commons . As a parliamentarian, he advocated tightening the copyright protection of books. To this end, he proposed a law in 1837 that would summarize and reorganize the numerous individual provisions on copyright protection. Among other things, he wanted to increase the time limit for copyrights from 28 years after publication to 60 years after the author's death.

Despite determined resistance, he ran this campaign for many years and was not discouraged when Minister Macaulay in the meantime completely threw the matter out of the deliberations. The efforts ultimately led to the Copyright Act of 1842 , which significantly extended the copyright periods, but otherwise hardly achieved any of Talfourd's broad goals.

Talfourd published the letters and works of the writer Charles Lamb , whose close friend he was. At the same time he wrote his first biography. Other acquaintances included William Godwin , Leigh Hunt , William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge .

Talfourd was a friend of Charles Dickens who dedicated the novel The Pickwick Papers to him. He also advised him on legal issues relating to Dickens 'numerous lawsuits and actions against reprinters who printed Dickens' works without authorization.

Dickens research suggests that Talfourd was the model for the character Thomas Traddles in Dickens' novel David Copperfield .

In 1822 he married Rachael Rutt. Talfourd was an often and welcome guest at dinners, in salons and at parties, his name appears in numerous letters of the time, where he is almost always mentioned in a friendly manner. Talfourd suffered a stroke in the courtroom while reading an indictment and died hours later.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Seville p. 16
  2. ^ A b William Searle Holdsworth: Charles Dickens as a legal historian. The Lawbook Exchange Ltd., 2010 (reprint from 1929), ISBN 1-886363-06-4 , p. 10
  3. ↑ a b c d e Seville p. 17
  4. ^ William Arthur Shaw: The Knights of England. Volume 2, Sherratt and Hughes, London 1906, p. 348
  5. ^ Carolyn Strange: Qualities of mercy: justice, punishment, and discretion. UBC Press, 1996, ISBN 0-7748-0585-4 , p. 34
  6. ^ A b John Maxwell Hamilton: Casanova was a book lover. And other naked truths and provocative curiosities about the writing, selling, and reading of books. LSU Press, 2000, ISBN 0-8071-2554-7 , p. 105
  7. ↑ Seville p. 1
  8. ^ William Searle Holdsworth: Charles Dickens as a legal historian. The Lawbook Exchange Ltd., 2010 (reprint from 1929), ISBN 1-886363-06-4 , p. 9
  9. ↑ Donald Hawes: Traddles, Thomas. In: Who's who in Dickens. Psychology Press, 1998, ISBN 0-415-13604-0 , p. 243

literature

personal data
SURNAME Talfourd, Thomas Noon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British politician, Member of the House of Commons, judge and author
DATE OF BIRTH May 26, 1795
PLACE OF BIRTH Reading , Berkshire
DATE OF DEATH March 13, 1854
Place of death Stafford