Theodore Edward Hook (22 September 1788 – 24 August 1841) was an English man of letters.
He was born in London. He spent a year at Harrow School, and subsequently matriculated at Oxford, but he never actually resided at the university. His father, James Hook (1746–1827), a composer of popular songs, took delight in exhibiting the boy's musical and metrical gifts, and the precocious Theodore became a pet of the green room. At the age of sixteen, in conjunction with his father, he scored a dramatic success with The Soldier's Return, a comic opera, and this he followed up with a series of popular ventures with John Liston and Charles Mathews.
Hook then became a playboy and practical joker, known for the Berners Street Hoax. He took up residence at St Mary Hall, Oxford University, leaving after two terms to resume his former life. His gift of improvising songs charmed the Prince Regent into a declaration that something must be done for Hook, who was appointed accountant-general and treasurer of Mauritius with a salary of £2000 a year. For five years he was the life and soul of the island, but in 1817, a serious deficiency having been discovered in the treasury accounts, he was arrested and brought to England on a criminal charge. A sum of about £12,000 had been abstracted by a deputy official, and for this amount Hook was held responsible.
During the scrutiny of the audit board he lived obscurely and maintained himself by writing for magazines and newspapers. In 1820 he launched the newspaper John Bull, the champion of high Toryism and the virulent detractor of Queen Caroline. Witty criticism and pitiless invective secured it a large circulation, and from this source Hook derived, for the first year at least, an income of £2000. He was, however, arrested for the second time on account of his debt to the state, which he made no effort to defray.
In a sponging-house, where he was confined for two years, he wrote the nine volumes of stories afterwards collected under the title of Sayings and Doings (1824–1828). In the early 1820s he helped the singer Michael Kelly compile his Reminiscences, which include details of working with Mozart. In the remaining twenty-three years of his life he poured forth thirty-eight volumes, besides articles, squibs and sketches. His novels have frequent passages of racy narrative and vivid portraiture. They include Maxwell (1830), Love and Pride (1833), the autobiographic Gilbert Gurney (1836), Jack Brag (1837), Gurney Married (1838) and Peregrine Bunce (1842).
Work had already begun to tell on his health, when Hook returned to his old habits; and a prolonged attempt to combine industry and dissipation resulted in the confession that he was done up in purse, in mind and in body too at last. He died on 24 August 1841. Hook is remembered as one of the most brilliant figures of Georgian times.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.