William Jerdan was the editor of the Literary Gazette for thirty-four years. He was also its main reviewer and critic, and in addition wrote essays, poems, fiction and a vast amount of biography for many other periodicals.
He was born on 16 April 1782 in Kelso in the Scottish Borders. On leaving school he succumbed to several bouts of illness, a spell of convalescence in the Navy during which he published his first poem, and made two unsuccessful attempts to study law in Edinburgh. He finally moved to London in 1806 with the vague idea of writing for his living.
In the first six years Jerdan was parliamentary reporter on the Aurora and the Pilot newspapers. He then wrote regularly for the Morning …
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Citation: Matoff, Susan. "William Jerdan". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 28 March 2011 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12959, accessed 25 November 2024.]
