Thomas Roscoe (

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

23 June 1791 – 24 September 1871

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

) was an English author and translator.

Life

The fifth son of

William Roscoe William Roscoe (8 March 175330 June 1831) was an English banker, lawyer, and briefly a Member of Parliament. He is best known as one of England's first abolitionists, and as the author of the poem for children ''The Butterfly's Ball, and the G ...

, he was born in Toxteth Park,

in 1791, and educated by Dr. W. Shepherd and by Mr. Lloyd, a private tutor. Soon after his father's financial troubles in 1816, which led to bankruptcy, Roscoe began to write in local magazines and journals, and he continued to follow literature as a profession. He died at age 80, on 24 September 1871, at Acacia Road, St. John's Wood, London.

Works

Roscoe's major original works were: *''Gonzalo, the Traitor: a Tragedy'', 1820. *''The King of the Peak'' non. 1823, 3 vols. *''Owain Goch: a Tale of the Revolution'' non. 1827, 3 vols. *''The Tourist in Switzerland and Italy'', 1830; the first volume of the ''Landscape Annual'', followed for eight years by similar volumes on Italy, France, and Spain. *''Wanderings and Excursions in North Wales'', 1836. *''Wanderings in South Wales'', with Louisa Anne Twamley the naturalist, 1837. *
The London and Birmingham Railway
', 1839. with illustrations from George Dodgson,

William Radclyffe William Radclyffe (20 October 1783 – 29 December 1855) was an English engraver and painter. Born in Birmingham and self-educated, he was apprenticed to a letter engraver and studied drawing under Joseph Barber with his cousin John Pye. B ...

, Edward Radclyffe and others *''Book of the Grand Junction Railway'', 1839 (the last two were issued together as the ''Illustrated History of the London and North-Western Railway''). *''Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra'', 1839 London Thomas Tegg *''Legends of Venice'', 1841. *''Belgium in a Picturesque Tour'', 1841. *''A Summer Tour in the Isle of Wight'', 1843. *''Life of William the Conqueror'', 1846. *''The Last of the Abencerages, and other Poems'', 1850. *''The Fall of Granada''. Roscoe's translations were: *The ''Memoirs'' of Benvenuto Cellini, 1822. *

Jean Charles Léonard de Sismondi Jean Charles Léonard de Sismondi (also known as Jean Charles Leonard Simonde de Sismondi) (; 9 May 1773 – 25 June 1842), whose real name was Simonde, was a Swiss historian and political economist, who is best known for his works on French and ...

, ''Literature of the South of Europe'', 1823, 4 vols. Roscoe's annotations helped make the work popular. *''Italian Novelists'', 1825, 4 vols. *''German Novelists'', 1826, 4 vols. *''Spanish Novelists'', 1832, 3 vols. *

Louis Joseph Antoine de Potter Louis de Potter (26 April 1786 – 22 July 1859), was a Belgian journalist, revolutionary, politician and writer. Out of the more than 100 books and pamphlets, one of the most notable works was his famous ''Letter to my Fellow Citizens'' in which ...

, ''Memoirs of Scipio de Ricci'', 1828, 2 vols. *

Luigi Lanzi Luigi Lanzi (14 June 1732 – 30 March 1810) was an Italian art historian and archaeologist. When he died he was buried in the church of the Santa Croce at Florence by the side of Michelangelo. Biography Born in Treia, Lanzi was educated as ...

, ''History of Painting in Italy'', 1828, 6 vols. *

Silvio Pellico Silvio Pellico (; 24 June 1789 – 31 January 1854) was an Italian writer, poet, dramatist and patriot active in the Italian unification. Biography Silvio Pellico was born in Saluzzo (Piedmont). He spent the earlier portion of his life at Pin ...

, ''Imprisonments'', 1833. *Pellico, ''Duties of Men'', 1834. *

Martín Fernández de Navarrete Martín Fernández de Navarrete y Ximénez de Tejada (November 9, 1765 – October 8, 1844), was a Spanish noble, grandson of the Marquess of Ximenez de Tejada, knight of the Order of Malta, politician and historian. He was a Spanish senator an ...

, ''Life of Cervantes'', 1839 (in ''

Murray's Family Library ''Murray's Family Library'' was a series of non-fiction works published from 1829 to 1834, by John Murray, in 51 volumes. The series editor was John Gibson Lockhart, who also wrote the first book, a biography of Napoleon. The books were priced a ...

''). *

Johann Georg Kohl Johann Georg Kohl (28 April 1808, in Bremen – 28 October 1878) was a German travel writer, historian, and geographer. Life Son of a wine merchant, he attended a gymnasium in Bremen, and then studied law at the universities of Göttingen, Hei ...

, ''Travels in England'', 1845. Roscoe edited ''The Juvenile Keepsake'', 1828–30; ''The Novelists' Library, with Biographical and Critical Notices'', 1831–3, 17 vols.; the works of

Henry Fielding Henry Fielding (22 April 1707 – 8 October 1754) was an English novelist, irony writer, and dramatist known for earthy humour and satire. His comic novel '' Tom Jones'' is still widely appreciated. He and Samuel Richardson are seen as founders ...

Tobias Smollett Tobias George Smollett (baptised 19 March 1721 – 17 September 1771) was a Scottish poet and author. He was best known for picaresque novels such as '' The Adventures of Roderick Random'' (1748), '' The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle'' (1751 ...

, and

Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish Satire, satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whig (British political party), Whigs, then for the Tories (British political party), Tories), poe ...

(1840–9, 3 vols.), and new issues of his father's ''Lorenzo de' Medici'' and ''Leo the Tenth''.

Family

Roscoe married, or cohabited with, Elizabeth Edwards, and had seven children, including Jane Elizabeth St John, writer and wife of Horace Stebbing Roscoe St John.

Notes

;Attribution

External links

* *
Works of Thomas Roscoe
at

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Roscoe, Thomas 1791 births 1871 deaths English translators English male dramatists and playwrights 19th-century English dramatists and playwrights 19th-century British translators 19th-century English male writers English male non-fiction writers Writers from Liverpool People from Toxteth