Samuel Laman Blanchard

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Samuel Laman Blanchard (May 15, 1804 - February 15, 1845), was a British author and journalist.

The son of a painter and glazier, he was born at Great Yarmouth. 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 an interest in literature, contributing dramatic sketches to a paper called Drama. For a short time he belonged to a travelling theatre company, but then became a proof-reader in London, and wrote for the Monthly Magazine. In 1827 he was made secretary of the Zoological Society, a post 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 Edward Bulwer-Lytton collected some 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 committed suicide.

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