Tom Hood
by Frederick Waddy(1872)
Tom Hood (19 January 1835 - 20 November 1874), was an English humorist and playwright, son of the poet and author Thomas Hood. A prolific author, he was appointed, in 1865, editor of the magazine Fun. He also founded Tom Hood's Comic Annual in 1867.
[edit] Biography
Hood was born at Lake House, Leytonstone, England. After attending University College School and Louth Grammar School, he entered Pembroke College, Oxford, in 1853. There he studied for the Church and passed all the examinations for the degree of BA, but did not graduate.
At Oxford he wrote his Farewell to the Swallows (1853) and Pen and Pencil Pictures (1854). He began to write for the Liskeard Gazette in 1856, and edited that paper in 1858-1859. In 1861 he wrote Quips and Cranks, and Daughters of King Daher, and other Poems. The next year, he published Loves of Tom Tucker and Little Bo-Peep, a Rhyming Rigmarole, followed in 1864 by Yere Vereker's Vengeance, a Sensation and in 1865 by Captain Master's Children, a Novel, and Jingles and Jokes for the Little Folks. His novels included A Disputed Inheritance, Golden Heart, [A Lost Link, Captain Masters's Children (1865), and Love and Valour. He also wrote two books on English verse composition, several children's books (in conjunction with his sister, Frances Freeling Broderip), and a body of magazine and journal articles. Hood drew with considerable facility, among his illustrations being those of several of his father's comic verses, some of which were collected in his father's book of comic verses, Precocious Piggy.[1]
Meanwhile, in 1860, he had obtained a position in the War Office, which he filled for five years, leaving in 1865 to become editor of Fun, the comic paper, which became very popular under his direction. In private life, Hood's geniality and sincere friendliness secured him the affection and esteem of a wide circle of acquaintance. Some of these friends also became contributors to his publications. For example, he befriended the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, a frequent contributor to Fun. Hood wrote the burlesque, Robinson Crusoe; or, The Injun Bride and the Injured Wife (1867), together with Gilbert, H. J. Byron, H. S. Leigh and Arthur Sketchley. Hood's Fun gang also included playwright Thomas W. Robertson, among others. In 1867 he first issued Tom Hood's Comic Annual.
A memoir by Hood's sister, FF Broderip, is prefixed to the edition of his poems published in 1877. In 1925, a school in Leytonstone was renamed after Hood.[2]
[edit] Notes
- ^ Anonymous (1873). Cartoon portraits and biographical sketches of men of the day. Illustrated by Waddy, Frederick. London: Tinsley Brothers. pp. 64. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Cartoon_portraits_and_biographical_sketches_of_men_of_the_day/Tom_Hood. Retrieved 2010-12-30.
- ^ Victoria County History of Essex, 1973
[edit] References
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.- Anonymous (1873). Cartoon portraits and biographical sketches of men of the day. Illustrated by Waddy, Frederick. London: Tinsley Brothers. pp. 64. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Cartoon_portraits_and_biographical_sketches_of_men_of_the_day/Tom_Hood. Retrieved 2010-12-30.
