Category:Thackeray, William Makepeace
Author William Makepeace Thackeray was born on July 18, 1811 in Calcutta, India.[1] He was sent to England for his school following his father’s death in 1815.[2] He was miserable at school until he started at Trinity College, Cambridge, though he ended up leaving the school in 1830 without finishing his degree.[3] For the next few years, Thackeray dabbled in several professions, including lawyer and artist,[4] funded by the £20,000 inheritance he had just gained from his father. [5] He quickly lost his inheritance because of frequent gambling and bad investments.[6]> Following this loss, he worked at his stepfather’s newspaper from 1836-1837, at which point the newspaper failed. Thackeray then relocated himself and his new wife, the second daughter of a colonel, to Bloomsbury, London, where he began earnestly working on his career as a writer to support his family.[7]
In Bloomsbury, Thackeray’s family life suffered: one of his three daughters died in infancy, and not long after, his wife became insane and was sent to the country, essentially turning Thackeray into a widower.[8] Yet in the wake of these tragedies, Thackeray began producing the works that would catapult his name to fame. His first writings came in the late 1830s to mid 1840s, published under pseudonyms such as “The Fat Contributor” and “Ikey Solomons.”[9] His true success, however, came with the novel Vanity Fair, published serially from 1847-1848, which not only brought him fame and fortune, but also established him as a credible English author.[10] Thackeray’s subsequent novels, such as The History of Henry Esmond, Esq. and The Virginians helped establish him as a author who was, to some critics, "more highly regarded than Dickens."[11] This credibility led publisher George Smith to invite Thackeray to be the editor for The Cornhill Magazine.[12] Due to Thackeray’s association with the magazine, Cornhill did astonishingly well in its first run; authors flocked to be published in the magazine.[13] Although Thackeray was never fully comfortable with being the magazine’s editor—he preferred to contribute his own works to it, such as the serialized novel The Adventures of Philip on His Way Through the World—he remained with the magazine until health issues forced him to resign in 1862.[14] Thackeray continued writing until his death in London on December 24, 1863.
Notes
Submitted by: Harlow, Abigail: section 1, Fall 2014
Page created by: Rushton, Michael: Section 1, Winter 2013
Articles in category "Thackeray, William Makepeace"
The following 2 pages are in this category, out of 2 total.
