Leigh Hunt

Leigh Hunt (James Henry Leigh Hunt) , 1784-1859, English poet, critic, and journalist. He was a friend of the eminent literary men of his time, and his home was the gathering place for such notable writers as Hazlitt , Lamb , Keats , and Shelley . With his brother John, Hunt established (1808) the Examiner, a liberal weekly to which he contributed political articles. Because of an outspoken article attacking the prince regent, the brothers were imprisoned from 1813 to 1815, but they continued to edit the journal from jail. In 1822, Hunt joined Shelley and Byron in Italy and launched the Liberal (1822-23), which proved a failure. During other periods Hunt contributed to the Indicator (1819-21), the Tatler (1830-32), and Leigh Hunt's London Journal (1834-35). His literary fame rests chiefly on his miscellaneous light essays, his lyrics Abou Ben Adhem and Jenny Kissed Me, and his witty and informative autobiography (1850). The Story of Rimini (1816), based on the love of Paolo and Francesca, is his only long poem of consequence. A noted dramatic and literary critic, he was one of the first to praise the genius of Shelley and Keats.

Bibliography: See L. H. and C. W. Houtchens, ed., Leigh Hunt's Dramatic Criticism (1949), Leigh Hunt's Literary Criticism (1956), and Leigh Hunt's Political and Occasional Essays (1962); biographies by E. Blunden (1930, repr. 1970), J. R. Thompson (1977), A. Blainey (1985), and A. Holden (2005).

Hunt, (James Henry) Leigh (1784–1859) English critic, journalist, and poet. Hunt was instrumental in introducing the work of Shelley and Keats to the public. He founded the literary periodical The Examiner, and also contributed to The Indicator and The Liberal.

Hunt, (James Henry) Leigh (1784–1859), English poet and essayist, and one of the pioneers of modern dramatic criticism. He probably had a keener appreciation of acting than any of his contemporaries, and his criticisms—the best of which are contained in Dramatic Essays (1894) edited by William Archer—recreate the art of the great players who brought distinction to the theatre of his day. He was the first regular critic of any importance to report upon all the principal theatrical events of his time, both in the News from 1805 to 1807 and in his own paper the Examiner, which he edited from 1808 to 1821, continuing to supervise it even while in prison in 1813 for having published in it some criticisms of the Prince Regent. In 1840 his only play A Legend of Florence was produced at Covent Garden, and in the same year he published an edition of the dramatic works of Sheridan and the Restoration dramatists with biographical notes, which inspired Macaulay to publish in the Edinburgh Review his famous essay on ‘The Comic Dramatists of the Restoration’.