Samuel Laman Blanchard

Samuel Laman Blanchard (15 May 1804 – 15 February 1845) was a British author and journalist.

Life

The son of a painter and glazier, he was born at Great Yarmouth. He was educated at St Olave's school, Southwark, and then became clerk to a proctor in Doctors' Commons. At an early age he developed an interest in literature, contributing dramatic sketches to a paper called Drama. For a short time he belonged to a travelling theatre company, but then became a proof-reader in London, and wrote for the Monthly Magazine. In 1827 he was made secretary of the Zoological Society, a post he held for three years.

Over-work broke down his strength and, after his wife died in December 1844 of a painful illness, Blanchard entered a depression from which he never recovered. He committed suicide with a razor, and was buried at West Norwood Cemetery.

Works

In 1828 he published Lyric Offerings, dedicated to Charles Lamb. He had a very varied journalistic experience, editing in succession the Monthly Magazine, the True Sun, the Constitutional, the Court Journal, the Courier, and George Cruikshank's Omnibus; and from 1841 until his death he was connected with the Examiner.

In 1846 Edward Bulwer-Lytton collected some of his prose-essays under the title Sketches of Life, to which a memoir of the author was prefixed. His verse was collected in 1876 by William Blanchard Jerrold.

Family

His eldest son was Sidney Laman Blanchard, the author of Yesterday and To-day in India.

References

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Blanchard, Samuel Laman". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

External links

Quotations related to Samuel Laman Blanchard at Wikiquote
Works by or about Samuel Laman Blanchard at Wikisource
Lee, Sidney (1886). "Blanchard, Samuel Laman" . In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 5. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 194-95.