John Hawkins (author)
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Sir John Hawkins (29 March 1719 – 21 May 1789) was an English author and friend of Dr Samuel Johnson and Horace Walpole. He was the father of the novelist Laetitia Hawkins.
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[edit] Biography
Hawkins studied architecture, law and literature and began a practice as an attorney in 1742. He was involved with the music clubs: Academy of Ancient Music (from 1743) and the Madrigal Society (from 1748). He also knew Handel.
In 1760 the family moved to Twickenham, and Sir John became a local magistrate. He published A General History of the Science and Practice of Music (London, 1776) although this publication was respected, it was soon overshadowed by Charles Burney's] General History of Music (1776-89).
After Johnson's death in 1784, he produced the first biography, Life of Samuel Johnson, 1787. This has been largely eclipsed, except for specialists, by the far longer and more colourful work (with the same title) published by James Boswell four years later. But Hawkins had known Johnson about twice as long as Boswell, since the 1740s, and his work, from which Boswell freely pillaged, covers some aspects of Johnson much better. Hawkins was more attuned to Johnson's strongly religious nature, and was with Johnson when he died, unlike Boswell who had been in Scotland for some months.
Hawkins also wrote on fishing, including The Complete Angler; Or, Contemplative Man's Recreation: Being a Discourse On Rivers, Fish-Ponds, Fish, and Fishing. He was also a Justice of the Peace and chairman of the Middlesex quarter sessions.
He was knighted in 1772 for his public services.
[edit] References
[edit] Further reading
- Percy A. Scholes - "The Life and Activities of Sir John Hawkins: Musician, Magistrate and Friend of Johnson", Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 7, No. 1 (1954)
