JAMES

See also:

• JAMES PAYN (1830-1898)

PAYN (1830-1898)  , English novelist, was born at Cheltenham, on the 28th of February 1830, his father being clerk to the Thames Commissioners and treasurer to the county of Berkshire . He was educated at Eton, and afterwards entered the Military Academy at Woolwich; but his health was not equal to the demands of a military career, and he proceeded in 1847 to Trinity College, Cambridge . He was among the most popular men of his time, and served as president of the Union . Before going to Cambridge he had published some verses in Leigh Hunt's Journal, and while still an undergraduate put forth a volume of Stories from Boccaccio in 1852, and in 1853 a volume of Poems . In the same year he left Cambridge, and shortly afterwards married Miss Louisa Adelaide Edlin, sister of Sir Peter Edlin . He then settled down in the Lake district to a literary career and contributed regularly to Household Words and Chambers's Journal . In 1858 he removed to Edinburgh to act as joint-editor of the latter periodical . He became sole editor in 1859, and conducted the magazine with much success for fifteen years . He removed to London in 1861 . In the pages of the Journal he published in 1864 his most popular story, Lost Sir Massingberd . From this time he was always engaged in novel-writing, among the most popular of his productions being Married Beneath Him (1865), Carlyon's Year (1868), By Proxy (1878), and The Talk of the Town (1885) . In 1883 he succeeded Leslie Stephen as editor of the Corn/till Magazine and continued in the post until the breakdown of his health in 1896 .

He was also literary adviser to Messrs

Smith, Elder & Company . His publications included a Handbook to the English Lakes (1859), and various volumes of occasional essays, Maxims by a Man of the World (1869), Some Private Views (1881), Some Literary Recollections (1884) . A posthumous work, The Backwater of Life (1899), revealed much of his own personality in a mood of kindly, sensible reflection upon familiar topics . He died in London, on the 25th of March 1898 . A biographical introduction to The Backwater of Life was furnished by Sir Leslie Stephen .