Douglas Jerrold
Douglas Jerrold was a prominent British writer of the mid-nineteenth century, renowned for his diverse contributions to literature across various genres, including drama, journalism, and fiction. Born in London in 1803, he initially aspired to a naval career, but his experiences at sea fueled his antiwar sentiments, leading him to pursue a path in writing instead. Jerrold's engagement with radical reform causes is evident in his work, as he sought to address social issues through his plays and writings. His most notable theatrical success, "Black-Eyed Susan," exemplifies the melodramatic and often farcical nature of his stage productions.
In addition to his theatrical endeavors, Jerrold significantly influenced journalism, co-founding the satirical journal Punch and serving as editor for several publications, including Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper, which he helped expand significantly. His literary output also included popular short stories and novels, with "Mrs. Caudle's Curtain Lectures" being among his most recognized works. Despite his contemporaries, like Dickens and Thackeray, recognizing his talents, Jerrold's legacy has waned over time, leaving him less known to modern audiences. He passed away in 1857, having left a mark on the literary landscape of his era through both his creative and reformist efforts.
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Subject Terms
Douglas Jerrold
Dramatist
- Born: January 3, 1803
- Birthplace: London, England
- Died: June 8, 1857
Biography
Douglas Jerrold was a prolific British writer of the mid-nineteenth century who wrote in several different genres. He was well known to leading literary figures of the period, including Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray, although Jerrold himself is hardly known today. He espoused many radical reform causes of his day and promoted these causes through his writing.
Jerrold was born in 1803 in London to Samuel Jerrold and his second wife, Miss Reid, theater proprietors in Kent. One of his parents’ theaters was at Sheerness, a thriving dockyard during the Napoleonic Wars. In fact, Jerrold’s first ambition was to be a sailor, but after two years at sea, where he saw cruelty to sailors and the suffering of wounded soldiers, he develop strong antiwar sentiments and left the navy at the end of the war.
In 1816, his family moved back to London, where he became a printer’s apprentice, educating himself in his spare time. In1824, Jerrold married Mary Ann Swann, with whom he had seven children. He continued to live and work in London for the rest of his life. He suffered debilitating bouts of rheumatism and died in 1857 at the age of fifty-four.
His first literary successes were on the stage. In 1818, he wrote a farce, “The Duelists,” which was performed at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London in 1821 under the title More Frightened than Hurt: A Farce in Two Acts He continued to write prolifically for the stage and many of his plays were produced, the best known being Black-Eyed Susan: Or, All in the Downs (pr., pb. 1829). Many of his plays had a reformist message, although they usually were melodramatic or farcical. However, with little control over his profits or production, he finally fell out with theater manager Charles Kean in 1854 and severed his ties with the theater.
However, from the 1820’s he also had been involved in journalism, starting with dramatic criticism for Mirror of the Stage. In 1830, he became subeditor of the liberal journal Ballot and then of the Examiner. In 1832, he participated in the founding of the famous British satirical journal Punch. Though the magazine was not an immediate success, at its relaunch in 1841 Jerrold contributed many hundreds of pieces under the signature of “Q.” In 1843, he became editor of the Illuminated Magazine, leaving that to begin his own Douglas Jerrold’s Shilling Magazine in 1845, to be followed in 1846 by Douglas Jerrold’s Weekly Newspaper. Both were aimed at lower-class readers, which was not a financially secure base, and both ventures folded. However, in 1848 he was offered the editorship of Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper, and under his leadership circulation eventually rose to 182,000.
Jerrold also was a prolific writer of short stories and wrote some popular novels, the best-known of which was Mrs. Caudle’s Curtain Lectures (1845). His short stories, some of which first appeared in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, were collected in Men of Character (1838) and Cakes and Ale (1842). Many of the stories were didactic or moral pieces with a reformist political agenda.