Hunt, Thornton Leigh

NEWSPAPER EDITOR (ENGLAND)
BORN 10 Sep 1810, London - DIED 25 Jun 1873, London: Kilburn
GRAVE LOCATION London: Kensal Green Cemetery, Harrow Road, Kensal Green (121/2 (13650))

Thornton Leigh Hunt was the son of the author Leigh Hunt and his wife Marianne. He grew up in Hampstead until he was twelve and the family moved to Italy for three years. He wanted to be a painter, but his lack of talent became clear and he became a journalist instead. He worked as an sub-editor for The Constitutional from 1837 to 1838. Douglas Jerrold and William Makepeace Thackeray were his collegaues there. After working for the Cheshire Reformer and the Glasgow Angus he settled in London in 1840.

In London he worked for several magazines. He founded The Leader together with G.H. Lewes. Lews became a good friend, but Hunt had a long relationship with his wife Agnes although he had married Katherine Giddon (1812-1878) in 1834. Agnes bore him four children.

His novel "The Foster-Brother: A tale of the War of Chiozza" was published in 1845. In 1855 he became the first editor of The Daily Telegraph together with Edward Levy-Lawson. He held his post until his death in 1873. He was also the editor of The Spectator from 1859 to 1861. Politically Hunt was a liberal and he was much appreciated by Lord Palmerston and a close friend of William Ewart Gladstone.

Family
• Father: Hunt, Leigh

Related persons
• knew Jerrold, Douglas
• was a friend of Lewes, George Henry
• knew Thackeray, William Makepeace

Images

The grave of Leigh Hunt at Kensal Green Cemetery, London.
Picture by Androom (11 Dec 1993)

 

Sources
• Bennett, Betty Y. (ed.), The Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1983
• Duerksen, Roland A., Shellyan Ideas in Victoria Literature, Mouton & Co, The Hague, 1966
Thornton Leigh Hunt - Wikipedia


Hunt, Violet

Published: 22 Sep 2018
Last update: 25 Apr 2022