Percival Leigh

Title page of a Victorian book, with hand-drawn lettering giving the full title: "Ye manners and customs of ye Englyshe: drawn from ye quick by Richard Doyle, to which be added some extracts from Mr. Pips his Diary, contributed by Percival Leigh"
Collaboration between Leigh and Richard Doyle, 1849

Percival Leigh (3 November 1813 – 24 October 1889), was an English satirist and comic writer, known as one of the founding contributors to the magazine Punch, where he was deputy to the editor, Mark Lemon. He collaborated with cartoonists including John Leech and Richard Doyle and was the last survivor of the original Punch contributors.

Life and career

Leigh was born in Haddington, Scotland, and trained for the medical profession at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London. There he became a close friend of the illustrator John Leech. They both passed their professional examinations and qualified as doctors in 1835, but found comic literature more to their liking.[1] They collaborated in 1840 on three books: The Comic Latin Grammar, The Comic English Grammar, and The Fiddle-Faddle Fashion Book. A fourth book, Portraits of Children of the Mobility, appeared in 1841. Its popularity caused Leigh and Leech to be recruited to Punch when it was set up later in that year.[1]

Leigh was named deputy editor under Mark Lemon, but when the latter died in 1870 Leigh failed to succeed him, being beaten to the post by Shirley Brooks.[1] When Brooks died in 1874 after four years as editor, Leigh was expected to be appointed, but Tom Taylor was preferred.[2][3]

Leigh's best-known work appeared in book form in 1849: Ye manners and customs of ye Englyshe: drawn from ye quick by Richard Doyle, to which be added some extracts from Mr. Pips his Diary.[1] Doyle's cartoons had appeared weekly in Punch and for the book Leigh added commentary in the style of Pepys's Diary. A biographical sketch of Leigh published in 1892 comments that the book "owes much to Doyle's illustrations; but Leigh's application of ancient phraseology to affairs of an essentially modern character, such as a shareholders' meeting, made a decided hit. It is a clever, sarcastic chronicle of prevailing fashions and opinions".[4]

Leigh retired to Oak Cottage, Hammersmith, where he died on 24 October 1889. He was the last survivor of the early writers in Punch. His wife, Letitia Morrison, predeceased him.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Archbold W. A. J., revised by Katharine Chubbuck "Leigh, Percival (1813–1889)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press 2004 (subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required)
  2. ^ "The New Editor of Punch", Edinburgh Evening News, 27 February 1874, p. 3
  3. ^ Howes, Craig. "Taylor, Tom", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 3 January 2008 (subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required)
  4. ^ a b Lee, pp. 436–437

Sources

  • Lee, Sidney (1892). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 32. London: Macmillan.
Wikimedia Commons logo
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Percival Leigh.

Content Disclaimer

Informasi ini disarikan dari Wikipedia dan disajikan kembali untuk tujuan edukasi. Konten tersedia di bawah lisensi CC BY-SA 3.0. Kami tidak bertanggung jawab atas ketidakakuratan data yang bersumber dari kontribusi publik tersebut.

  1. The information displayed on this website is sourced in part or in whole from Wikipedia and has been adapted for the purpose of restating it. We strive to provide accurate and relevant information, however:
  2. There is no guarantee of absolute accuracy. Wikipedia is an open, collaborative project that can be edited by anyone, so information is subject to change.
  3. It is not intended to constitute professional advice. The content displayed is for informational and educational purposes only. For important decisions (e.g., medical, legal, or financial), please consult a professional.
  4. Content copyright. Wikipedia is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License (CC BY-SA). This means that content may be reused with appropriate attribution and shared under a similar license.
  5. Responsible use. Any risk arising from the use of information from this website is entirely the responsibility of the user.