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Author: Knowles, James Sheridan

Biography:

Knowles, James Sheridan (1784-1862: ODNB)

He was the eldest surviving child of James Knowles, a lexicographer and schoolmaster, and Jane (Peace) Knowles, and was born at Cork. His second name is derived from Richard Brinsley Sheridan, a cousin of his father. He was initially educated at his father’s school but in 1793 the family moved to London. There, his early attempts at writing earned him the attention of William Hazlitt, a family acquaintance, who introduced him to Coleridge and Charles Lamb. In 1800, after his mother’s death and his father’s remarriage, he left home and briefly spent time in the military. Although he later earned his MD at the University of Aberdeen, in 1808 he abandoned medicine for the theatre; thereafter he both acted (never very successfully) and wrote plays. In 1809 he married Maria Charteris of Edinburgh and, to support their family, he supplemented his income from the theatre by teaching in Belfast and Glasgow, writing for the Glasgow Free Press, and lecturing on oratory and drama. His tragedy, Caius Gracchus, was first performed in Belfast in 1815 and marked a turning point in his career as a playwright. Over the next two decades he came to be recognised as a leading dramatist of the day. In 1842, a year after the death of his first wife, he married Emma Marian Maria Elphinstone. At about the same time, he unexpectedly took up a new career as a Baptist preacher—something he continued almost until his death. He served on the committee charged with arranging the purchase of Shakespeare’s birthplace in 1848. He died at Torquay and was buried in the Glasgow necropolis. (ODNB 25 Sept 2019)

 

Books written (49):

Waterford: printed for the author by John Bull, 1810
From the 2nd London edn. New York: Thomas Longworth, 1820
3rd edn. London: James Ridgway, 1820
Glasgow/ London/ Edinburgh/ Dublin: Reid and Henderson/ J. Ridgway, and Hurst, Robinson, and Co./ Constable and Co./ R. Milliken, 1823
6th edn. London: James Ridgway, 1823
Baltimore: J. Robinson, 1825
New York: E. M. Murden, 1825
London: Thomas Dolby, [1825?]
Philadelphia/ New York: Weikel and Bunn/ Elton and Perkins, [1825]
From the 2nd London edn. Boston: Benjamin Davenport, 1826
London/ Edinburgh/ Glasgow/ Dublin: Basil Stewart and J. Ridgway/ Constable and Co./ R. Griffin and Co./ W. F. Wakeman, 1828
Philadelphia: C. Neal, 1828
London: John Cumberland, [1829]
London: John Cumberland, [1829]
London: John Cumberland, [1829]
London: John Cumberland, [1829?]
Baltimore: J. Robinson, 1832
2nd edn. London: E. Moxon, 1832
New York: Owen Phelan, [1832?]
New York: Peabody and Co., 1832
Philadelphia: Turner and Son, 1832
3rd edn. London: E. Moxon, 1832
4th edn. London: E. Moxon, 1832
Baltimore: J. Robinson, 1832
7th edn. London: Moxon, 1833
Baltimore: J. Robinson, 1833
5th edn. London: Edward Moxon, 1833
6th edn. London: Edward Moxon, 1833
2nd edn. London: Edward Moxon, 1833
3rd edn. London: Edward Moxon, 1833
4th edn. London: Edward Moxon, 1833
8th edn. London: Edward Moxon, 1834
Baltimore: Edward J. Coale and Co., 1835
London: John Cumberland, [1835]
London: John Cumberland, [1835]