Thomas Wemyss Reid

For other people named Thomas Reid, see Thomas Reid (disambiguation).

Sir Thomas Wemyss Reid (29 March 1842 – 26 February 1905) was a British newspaper editor, novelist and biographer.

Funerary monument, Brompton Cemetery, London

Early life

Reid was born at Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1842.

Career

He became chief reporter on the Newcastle Journal aged 19. While working on the Leeds Mercury (1870–87), he won the right for provincial newspapers to be admitted to the House of Commons press gallery.

After being connected with various provincial newspapers – including as editor of the Leeds Mercury – he came to London in 1887 as manager for Cassell & Co, the London publishers.

From 1890–99, he edited his own moderate Liberal magazine The Speaker and wrote a number of biographies, including one of Charlotte Brontë. He also wrote a book on Tunisia, "Land of the Bey", and a number of popular novels, including Gladys Fane.

He was knighted in 1894. Reid died in 1905 and is buried in Brompton Cemetery, London.

Writings

Among his more permanent writings are:

• The Land of the Bey (1882),
• Gladys Fane (1883),
• and Lives of William Edward Forster (1888), and Lords Houghton (1891), and Playfair(1899), and William Black, Novelist (1902).

He pronounced Heathcliff, from Wuthering Heights, "the greatest villain of literature." (From "A character study from "Wuthering Heights," The Nassau Literary Magazine (1848–1908); Apr 1879; 34, 9; American Periodicals Series Online).

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: J. M. Dent & Sons. Wikisource

Sources

• [ttp://www.authorandbookinfo.com/cgi-bin/auth.pl?R001134 Author and Bookinfo.com]

External links

• Life of William Edward Forster by Thomas Wemyss Reid, Chapman and Hall, 1888
• Life of the Right Honourable William Edward Forster, by Thomas Wemyss Reid, Chapman & Hall, 1889
• The Life, Letters, and Friendships of Richard Monckton Milnes, First Lord Houghton, by Thomas Wemyss Reid, Cassell and Company, 1890
• William Black: Novelist, by Thomas Wemyss Reid, Cassell and Company, 1902