Author: Bennett, John
Biography:
BENNETT, John (fl 1825-34)
Other than his association with Ipswich, Suffolk, no biographical information that can be conclusively linked to this author has been found. He may have been the John Bennett who died at Ipswich on 22 Sept. 1847 and was born in about 1773. Bennett made his name in writing about and popularising shorthand; his books include Elements of Stenography (1825), Short-hand Explained (1825), Introductory View of Short-hand (1827); and A Short Method of Writing (1832). His Expeditious Way of Writing in Common Characters (1829) features a translation of Bernardin Saint Pierre’s “The Indian Cottage” written “expeditiously.” He also published a translation from the French of M. Clery’s Journal of What Took Place at the Tower of the Temple (1828). The Bells is dedicated to Richard Hall Gower, naval inventor, who lived near Ipswich. In 1834 he published The Poetic Souvenir. It too is dedicated to Gower who had died in 1833 and, although with a different title and different wording in the dedication, the book is a reprint of The Bells. The poems are by Bennett and the advertisements in both books state that many had previously been published elsewhere. The Poetic Souvenir, formerly thought to be a collection of verse by others, is therefore Bennett’s work. (ODNB [for Richard Hall Gower] 2 June 2023; findmypast.co.uk 2 June 2023)