Mayhew, Henry

Mayhew, Henry
born 1812, London, Eng.
died July 25, 1887, London

English journalist and sociologist.

He studied law but soon turned to journalism. In 1841 he founded the highly successful Punch. A vivid and voluminous writer, he is best known for London Labour and the London Poor (1851–62), an evocation of the sights and sounds of the working-class districts of London, which influenced Charles Dickens and other writers. He also wrote plays, farces, fairy tales, and novels, some in collaboration with his brother Augustus Septimus Mayhew (1826–75).

Henry Mayhew, engraving after a photograph

BBC Hulton Picture Library

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▪ British journalist
born 1812, London, England
died July 25, 1887, London

      English journalist and sociologist, a founder of the magazine Punch (1841), who was a vivid and voluminous writer best known for London Labour and the London Poor, 4 vol. (1851–62). His evocation of the sights and sounds of London in this work influenced Charles Dickens and other writers.

      Mayhew, the son of a solicitor, ran away to sea at age 12 and made a voyage to India. Upon his return he studied law with his father but soon turned to journalism. He helped to found the periodicals Figaro in London (1831) and The Thief (1832) before organizing the highly successful Punch, of which he was coeditor (with Mark Lemon) for two years. He also wrote plays, farces, fairy tales, and novels, some in collaboration with his brother Augustus Septimus Mayhew (1826–75). Short of money in his later years, he produced much hackwork and died in obscurity.

      Mayhew had a genius for lively and sensitive reportage of people, including social outcasts and nomads, and of contrasting ways of life; and he was able to combine his observation with penetrating economic and social analysis, some of it with a Marxist flavour. London Labour and the London Poor was based on letters he wrote to the London Morning Chronicle in 1849–50, at the end of a stormy decade in British social history. Responding to the newspaper's desire for “trustworthy information” on the great social problems of the day, Mayhew prepared three volumes that were published in 1851; the fourth volume, The Criminal Prisons of London, was written in collaboration with John Binny and did not appear until 1862. A revised complete edition was published in 1864.

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  • MAYHEW, HENRY —    littérateur and first editor of Punch, born in London, and articled to his father, a solicitor; chose journalism as a profession, and in conjunction with Gilbert à Beckett started The Thief in 1832, the first of the Bits type of papers; he… …   The Nuttall Encyclopaedia

  • Henry Mayhew — (1861) Henry Mayhew (* 25. November 1812; † 25. Juli 1887) war ein englischer Sozialforscher, Journalist, Stückeschreiber. Er engagierte sich für soziale Reformen. Mayhew gründete zusammen mit Mark Lemon das satirische Magazin Punch. Besser… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • henry — /hen ree/, n., pl. henries, henrys. Elect. the SI unit of inductance, formally defined to be the inductance of a closed circuit in which an electromotive force of one volt is produced when the electric current in the circuit varies uniformly at a …   Universalium

  • Henry — /hen ree/, n. 1. Joseph, 1797 1878, U.S. physicist. 2. O., pen name of William Sydney Porter. 3. Patrick, 1736 99, American patriot, orator, and statesman. 4. Cape, a cape in SE Virginia at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. 5. Fort. See …   Universalium

  • Henry — ► sustantivo masculino ELECTRICIDAD Denominación del henrio en la nomenclatura internacional. IRREG. plural henrys * * * henrio o henry (de J. Henry, físico inglés) m. Fís. Unidad de inductancia eléctrica en el Sistema Internacional. * * * …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • henry — ► sustantivo masculino ELECTRICIDAD Denominación del henrio en la nomenclatura internacional. IRREG. plural henrys * * * henrio o henry (de J. Henry, físico inglés) m. Fís. Unidad de inductancia eléctrica en el Sistema Internacional. * * * henry …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Henry Mayhew — (25 November 1812 25th July 1887) was an English social researcher, journalist, playwright and advocate of reform. He was one of the two founders of the satirical and humorous magazine Punch , and the magazine s joint editor, with Mark Lemon, in… …   Wikipedia

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  • Henry Mayhew — (25 novembre 1812 25 juillet 1887) est un journaliste anglais. Il a travaillé au Punch Magazine, mais il est surtout connu pour le monumental London Labour and the London Poor. Biographie Henry Mayhew est né en 1812, fils de Joschua Mayhew et de… …   Wikipédia en Français

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