Tom Taylor
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This article is about the dramatist and editor. For other uses, see Tom Taylor (disambiguation)
Tom Taylor (October 19, 1817 – July 12, 1880) was a dramatist and editor of Punch magazine.
He was born at Bishop Wearmouth, near Sunderland, in north-east England. After attending school there, and studying for two sessions at the University of Glasgow, he entered Trinity College at Cambridge University in 1837.
Taylor began his working life as a journalist. Soon after moving to London, Taylor wrote for the Morning Chronicle and the Daily News. He was on the staff of Punch until 1874, when he succeeded Shirley Brooks as editor.
For two years Taylor was a professor of English literature at University College, London. He was called to the bar at Middle Temple in November 1846, and went on the northern circuit until he became assistant secretary of the Board of Health in 1850. On the reconstruction of the Board in 1854 he was made secretary, and on its abolition his services were transferred to a department of the Home Office, retiring on a pension in 1876.
He died at Wandsworth, London, England.
[edit] Theatre
In his very early years Tom Taylor had shown a predilection for the drama, and had been in the habit of performing dramatic pieces with a number of children in a loft over a brewer's stable. Four burlesques of his were produced at the Lyceum in 1844.
His first hit was To Parents and Guardians, produced at the Lyceum in 1845. Although many successive plays were extremely popular, his writing did not suffer in pursuit of popularity. The characters in his dramas are clearly and consistently drawn, and the dialogue is natural and pointed. In his blank-verse historical dramas, Anne Boleyn and Joan of Arc, most critics find that he was not as successful.
The general decline in popularity and accessibility of theatre in the 20th century has made Taylor mostly forgotten amongst the public. His most famous play today is Our American Cousin, remembered not for its content but for its association with Abraham Lincoln's assassination.
[edit] Bibliography
He wrote over 100 plays, the majority of them completed in a 35 year span.
- Our American Cousin (1858)
- Still Waters Run Deep (1855)
- Victims (1857)
- The Contested Election (1859)
- The Overland Route (1860)
- The Ticket of Leave Man (1863)
- Anne Boleyn (1875)
- Joan of Arc (1871)
