Thomas_Hay_Sweet_Escott_Vanity_Fair_1885-05-02

Thomas Hay Sweet Escott (26 April 1844, in

Taunton Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England, with a 2011 population of 69,570. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century monastic foundation, Taunton Castle, which later became a priory. The Normans built a castle owned by the ...

– 13 June 1924, in

Hove Hove is a seaside resort and one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove, along with Brighton in East Sussex, England. Originally a "small but ancient fishing village" surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th cen ...

) was an English journalist and editor. (Ph.D. dissertation).

Life

The son of Hay Escott of

Launton Launton is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish on the eastern outskirts of Bicester, Oxfordshire, England. The United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 1,204. Manor King Edward the Confessor ...

, he received from

Queen's College, Oxford The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassical architecture, ...

his B.A. degree in 1865 and his M.A. in 1868. At

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...

he was a lecturer in logic from 1865 to 1872 and deputy professor of classical literature from 1866 to 1873. In 1866 Escott became a

leader writer A leader writer is a senior journalist in a British newspaper who is charged with writing the paper's editorial either in the absence of the editor or in cases where the editor chooses not to write editorials because their editorial skills may res ...

for ''The Standard''. In October 1882 he replaced

John Morley John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn, (24 December 1838 – 23 September 1923) was a British Liberal statesman, writer and newspaper editor. Initially, a journalist in the North of England and then editor of the newly Liberal-leani ...

as the editor of ''

The Fortnightly Review ''The Fortnightly Review'' was one of the most prominent and influential magazines in nineteenth-century England. It was founded in 1865 by Anthony Trollope, Frederic Harrison, Edward Spencer Beesly, and six others with an investment of £9,000; ...

''; in 1886, however, he suffered a physical and emotional breakdown in health and officially resigned in August of that year. During the last 35 years of his life Escott lived in semi-retirement in Brighton, in poor health. He seems to have written nothing from 1886 to June 1894, and there is no record of his employment during those years. By 1895 he had partially recovered, and he wrote over 100 articles and a number of books before his death in 1924. His acquaintances included a wide variety of prominent people in literature and the arts, including

W. S. Gilbert Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (18 November 1836 – 29 May 1911) was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his collaboration with composer Arthur Sullivan, which produced fourteen comic operas. The most f ...

and

Alfred Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his ...

. Among Escott's close friends were

Wilkie Collins William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 – 23 September 1889) was an English novelist and playwright known especially for ''The Woman in White (novel), The Woman in White'' (1859), a mystery novel and early "sensation novel", and for ''The Moons ...

Charles Reade Charles Reade (8 June 1814 – 11 April 1884) was a British novelist and dramatist, best known for '' The Cloister and the Hearth''. Life Charles Reade was born at Ipsden, Oxfordshire, to John Reade and Anne Marie Scott-Waring, and had at leas ...

, and the historian

Alexander Kinglake Alexander William Kinglake (5 August 1809 – 2 January 1891) was an English travel writer and historian. He was born near Taunton, Somerset, and educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge. He was called to the Bar in 1837, an ...

Family

Escott married Katherine Jane Liardet in 1865; the marriage produced three children and ended with her death in 1899. His second wife was the widow Edith Hilton.

Selected publications

*; * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

References

External links

* * English male journalists Alumni of The Queen's College, Oxford Academics of King's College London 1844 births 1924 deaths {{england-writer-stub