Author: Lemoine, Henry
Biography:
LEMOINE, Henry (1756-1812: WBIS)
Born in London, he was the son of a French immigrant, Henry Lemoine, and his wife Anne I. Cenette of Guernsey; he was baptised in the French Huguenot church in Spitalfields. At fourteen he was apprenticed to a local stationer and rag merchant and later transferred to a bookseller and baker. His career in the publishing world carried on in this makeshift way. He began to contribute to London periodicals as a hack writer. With a small inheritance, he set up a stall selling books and medicines. He wrote a risqué novel (The Kentish Curate, 1786) and edited books on boxing, ghosts, and medicinal plants, which he published himself; he also started two popular magazines, The Conjuror's Magazine and The Wonderful Magazine. In 1786 he married Anne Swires, but they separated in 1794 when he was imprisoned for debt. The work for which he is still known was a study in the history of printing, Typographical Antiquities (1797). After a period as an itinerant hawker or colporteur, he was able to open a bookstall again in 1807, but his health failed and he died in hospital in 1812. (ODNB 10 Nov. 2019)