PIERCE

See also:

• PIERCE EGAN (1772-1849)

EGAN (1772-1849)  , English sporting writer, was born in London in 1772., He began life as sporting reporter for the newspapers, and was soon recognized as the best of his day . In 1814 he wrote, set and printed a book about the relations of-the prince regent (afterwards George IV.) and Miss Robinson, called The Mistress of Royalty, or the Loves of Florizel and Perdita . But his best-known work is Life in London, or Days and Nights of Jerry Hawthorne and his Elegant Friend Corinthian Tom (1821), a book\ describing the amusements of sporting men, with illustrations by Cruikshank . This book took the popular fancy and was one of Thackeray's early favourites (see his Roundabout Papers) . It was repeatedly imitated, and several dramatic versions were produced in London . A sequel containing more of country sports and misadventures probably suggested Dickens's Pickwick Papers . In 1824 Pierce Egan's Life in London and Sporting Guide was started, a weekly newspaper afterwards incorporated with Bell's Life . Among his numerous other books are Boxiana (1818), Life of an Actor (1824), Book of Sports (1832), and the Pilgrims of the Thames (1838) . Egan died at Pentonville on the 3rd of August 1849 . His son, Pierce Egan (1814-188o), illustrated his own and his father's books, and wrote a score of novels of varying merit, of which The Snake in the Grass (1858) is perhaps the best .