Search the blog

Thomas Penson De Quincey, author of Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, died in Edinburgh on 8 December 1859 – he was 74.To mark the day, here is a newspaper obituary of De Quincey that was published two weeks after his death.Royal Cornwall Gazette – Friday 23 December 1859Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000180/18591223/036/0006Manchester Times – Friday 08 August 1890Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000504/18900808/030/0005…

Anthony Trollope, author of the ‘Chronicles of Barsetshire’, died in London on 6 December 1882 – he was 67.Trollope was the inventor of the post-box, or rather perhaps a leading campaigner for the idea of establishing a post-box, in the UK – it’s a matter of ongoing debate regarding whether he actually invented the post-box. Whatever, the post office and postal system was certainly a major muse on his writing.Here is a detailed newspaper obituary of Trollope that was published just eight days…

The brilliant English crime writer, Agatha Christie, disappeared on 3 December 1926, following a row with her husband, Archie.After a massive man hunt (or rather woman hunt) lasting ten days, Mrs Christie was found at a hotel in Harrogate, Yorkshire, where she had registered under the nom de plume, ‘Mrs Teresa Neele’ of Cape Town.Agatha Christie never explained anything about her sudden sabbatical – so it remains a mystery.Here are two newspaper stories: the first story reports on the disappearance…

‘Give us also the right to our existence’At Bow Street in London on 16 November 1928, Miss Radclyffe Hall’s novel, ‘The Well of Loneliness’, found itself in the dock on a charge of obscenity.The powers-that-be had decided that they did not like the novel’s ‘unnatural offences’ – hence the decision to prosecute.The magistrate eventually decided that the book was obscene and ordered that it be destroyed.Here is a newspaper story that reports on this famous literary court case.Image ©…

Robert Louis Stevenson was born at 8 Howard Place in Edinburgh on 13 November 1850.  To celebrate the day, here is an early newspaper review (from January 1886) of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde – which was published on 5 January 1886.After his death in 1894, the Graphic published a retrospective look at the works of Robert Louis Stevenson and his contribution to literature.…

Elizabeth Gaskell (aka ‘Mrs Gaskell’), author of such classic Victorian and ‘Condition of England’ novels as North and South and Cranford, died in Holybourne, Hampshire, on 12 November 1865 – she was 55.The Illustrated London News did a feature on ‘The Secret of the Author of Cranford‘.To commemorate the day, here is a newspaper tribute to Mrs Gaskell that was published on 18 November 1865.We’ve also included three splendid illustrations for the novel, Cranford, which were published in The Graphic newspaper.…