40 Facts About Leigh Hunt

James Henry Leigh Hunt, best known as Leigh Hunt, was an English critic, essayist and poet.

Leigh Hunt was the centre of the Hampstead-based group that included William Hazlitt and Charles Lamb, known as the "Hunt circle".

Leigh Hunt introduced John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Robert Browning and Alfred Tennyson to the public.

Leigh Hunt inspired aspects of the Harold Skimpole character in Charles Dickens' novel Bleak House.

Once in England, Isaac Leigh Hunt became a popular preacher but was unsuccessful in obtaining a permanent living.

Leigh Hunt was then employed by James Brydges, 3rd Duke of Chandos, as tutor to his nephew, James Henry Leigh for whom Isaac named his son.

Leigh Hunt was educated at Christ's Hospital in London from 1791 to 1799, a period that Hunt described in his autobiography.

Leigh Hunt began to write for the newspapers and published in 1807 a volume of theatre criticism, and a series of Classic Tales with critical essays on the authors.

In 1809, Leigh Hunt married Marianne Kent, whose parents were Thomas and Ann.

Leigh Hunt made little mention of his family in his autobiography.

In 1808, Leigh Hunt left the War Office, where he had been working as a clerk, to become editor of The Examiner, a newspaper founded by his brother, John Leigh Hunt.

Robert Leigh Hunt's criticism earned the enmity of William Blake, who described the office of The Examiner as containing a "nest of villains".

Blake's response included Leigh Hunt, who had published several vitriolic reviews in 1808 and 1809 and had added Blake's name to a list of so-called "quacks".

Leigh Hunt served his term at the Surrey County Gaol.

The stoicism with which Leigh Hunt bore his imprisonment attracted general attention and sympathy.

Leigh Hunt's imprisonment allowed him many luxuries and access to friends and family, and Lamb described his decorations of the cell as something not found outside a fairy tale.

From 1810 to 1812, Leigh Hunt edited a quarterly magazine, The Reflector, for his brother John.

Leigh Hunt wrote "The Feast of the Poets" for publication.

Leigh Hunt's work was a satire that offended many contemporary poets, particularly William Gifford.

From 1819 to 1821, Leigh Hunt edited The Indicator, a weekly literary periodical that was published by Joseph Appleyard.

Leigh Hunt probably wrote much of the content, which included reviews, essays, stories and poems.

From January to July 1828, Leigh Hunt edited The Companion, a weekly literary periodical that was published by Leigh Hunt and Clarke.

Leigh Hunt's preference was decidedly for Geoffrey Chaucer's verse style, as adapted to Modern English by John Dryden.

In 1818, Leigh Hunt published a collection of poems entitled Foliage, followed in 1819 by Hero and Leander, and Bacchus and Ariadne.

In return, Leigh Hunt provided Shelley with support during his family problems and defended him in The Examiner.

Leigh Hunt introduced Keats to Shelley and wrote a very generous appreciation of him in The Indicator.

Shelley suggested that Leigh Hunt could join him and Byron in Italy to establish a quarterly magazine.

However, Byron soon discovered that Leigh Hunt was no longer interested in The Examiner.

Leigh Hunt left England for Italy in November 1821, but storm, sickness, and misadventure delayed his arrival until 1 July 1822.

Leigh Hunt was now virtually dependent upon Byron, who was not interested in supporting him and his family.

Leigh Hunt, remaining in Genoa, enjoyed the Italian climate and culture and stayed in Italy until 1825.

In 1828, Leigh Hunt published Lord Byron and some of his Contemporaries.

The work was designed to counter what Leigh Hunt perceived as an inaccurate public image of Byron.

The public was shocked that Leigh Hunt, who had been obliged to Byron for so much, would "bite the hand that fed him".

Leigh Hunt worked unremittingly, but one effort failed after another.

In 1832, Leigh Hunt published by subscription a collected edition of his poems.

Also in 1832, Leigh Hunt printed for private circulation Christianism, the work afterward published as The Religion of the Heart.

Also in 1840, Leigh Hunt wrote introductory notices to the work of Richard Brinsley Sheridan and to Edward Moxon's edition of the works of William Wycherley, William Congreve, John Vanbrugh and George Farquhar, a work that furnished the occasion of Macaulay's essay on the Dramatists of the Restoration.

Leigh Hunt published a book on the pastoral poetry of Sicily, A Jar of Honey from Mount Hybla.

Today, a residential street in his birthplace of Southgate is named Leigh Hunt Drive in his honour.