Author: Akenside, Mark
Biography:
AKENSIDE, Mark (1721-70: ODNB)
A prior author, Akenside owes his presence in this database to later collections that included his major poem, The Pleasures of Imagination, and to the 1772 posthumous edition prepared by Jeremiah Dyson which contains some new works. He was born on 9 Nov. 1721 in Newcastle Upon Tyne, one of seven children of Mark Akenside, a butcher, and his wife Mary Lumsden. He was baptised on 30 Nov. 1721 in the non-conformist meeting house that his parents attended. Educated at Newcastle Royal Grammar School, he quickly gained a reputation both for being studious and for composing verse; his first published poem appeared in the Gentleman’s Magazine in Apr. 1737. Akenside studied medicine at Edinburgh University (matric. 1738). By mid-1742 he had returned to Newcastle where he wrote The Pleasures of Imagination (1744; numerous later editions, some with extensive revisions). The poem made his name and it remains the work by which he is best known. He completed his medical studies in Leiden and subsequently attempted to establish a medical practice in Hampstead, London, under the sponsorship of a friend, Jeremiah Dyson, a barrister. Dyson supported him generously for many years, including when Akenside moved to Bloomsbury, where he lived until 1759. He edited Robert Dodsley’s The Museum (1746-47), wrote and published other poems and medical essays, and in the 1750s worked diligently to further his medical career. In 1761 he was appointed physician-in-ordinary to Queen Charlotte. Akenside died of a “putrid sore throat” on 23 June 1770 and was buried at St. James’s, Piccadilly, on 28 June. His will left the whole of his estate to Dyson who was also the executor. (ODNB 7 Oct. 2022; ancestry.co.uk 7 Oct. 2022)
Other Names:
- Akenside
- Dr. Akenside