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Samuel Laman Blanchard

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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SAMUEL LAMAN BLANCHARD (1804-1845), British author' and journalist, the son of a painter and glazier, was born at Great Yarmouth on the 15th of May 1804. He was educated at St Olave's school, Southwark, and then became clerk to a proctor in Doctors' Commons. At an early age he developed literary tastes, contributing dramatic sketches to a paper called Drama. For a short time he was a member of a travelling dramatic company, but subsequently became a proof-reader in London, and wrote for the Monthly Magazine. In 1827 he was made secretary of the Zoological Society, a post which he held for three years. In 1828 he published Lyric Offerings , dedicated to Charles Lamb. He had a very varied journalistic experience, editing in succession the Monthly Magazine, the True Sun, the Constitutional, the Court Journal, the Courier, and George Cruikshank's Omnibus; and from 1841 till his death he was connected with the Examiner. In 1846 Bulwer-Lytton collected a number of his prose-essays under the title Sketches of Life, to which a memoir of the author was prefixed. His verse was collected in 1876 by Blanchard Jerrold. Over-work broke down his strength, and, unnerved by the death of his wife, he died by his own hand on the 15th of February 1845.

His eldest son, Sidney Laman Blanchard, who was the author of Yesterday and To-day in India, died in 1883.