SAMUEL LAMAN

See also:

• SAMUEL LAMAN BLANCHARD (1804-1845)

BLANCHARD (1804-1845)  , British author and journalist, the son of a painter and glazier, was born at Great Yarmouth on the 15th of May 1804 . He was educated at St Olave's school, Southwark, and then became clerk to a proctor in Doctors' Commons . At an early age he developed literary tastes, contributing dramatic sketches to a paper called Drama . For a short time he was a member of a travelling dramatic company, but subsequently became a proof-reader in London, and wrote for the Monthly Magazine . In 1827 he was made secretary of the Zoological Society, a post which he held for three years . In 1828 he published Lyric Offerings, dedicated to Charles Lamb . He had a very varied journalistic experience, editing in succession the Monthly Magazine, the True Sun, the Constitutional, the Court Journal, the Courier, and George Cruikshank's Omnibus; and from 1841 tih his death he was connected with the Examiner . In 1846 Bulwer-Lytton collected a number of his prose-essays under the title Sketches of Life, to which a memoir of the author was prefixed . His verse was collected in 1876 by Blanchard Jerrold . Over-work broke down his strength, and, unnerved by the death of his wife, he died by his own hand on the 15th of February 1845 . His eldest son, SIDNEY LAMAN BLANCHARD, who was the author of Yesterday and To-day in India, died in 1883 .