Author: Hand, I.
Biography:
HAND, I. (fl. 1789)
His collection of Poems, Humorous and Sentimental, written and collected during a Residence of Some Years in the City of Worcester, contains about 25 occasional poems and light verse by Hand himself, the remainder being pieces contributed by friends or culled from recent or contemporary poets such as Pratt, "Peter Pindar," and Lyttleton (qq.v.). There is no other known publication by him. His first name may have been "John" or "James"--the capital letter "I" being used also for "J" in typography at the time, and some contemporary sources referring to the book as the work of “J. Hand.” As his title indicates, Worcester was a temporary place of residence for him and he was no doubt born elsewhere. No reliable public records have been found about his birth, death, or marriage. The subscription list for his book, four pages in double columns, is respectable but not star-studded, and is made up of mostly local people: hair-dressers, innkeepers, hop-merchants, ironmongers, and a few attorneys. He seems to have been interested in the theatre: several poems take the form of prologues or verses to be spoken by actors. The only solid information about him comes from Chambers, who identifies him as "a compositor in the Office of the Worcester Journal" who "died about 1792." (John Chambers, Biographical Illustrations of Worcestershire [1820], 607) HJ