William Mudford
William Mudford (8 January 1782 – 10 March 1848)
His short story "The Iron Shroud", about an iron torture chamber which shrinks through mechanical action and eventually crushes the victim inside,[5] was first published in August 1830 by Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, and later republished separately in 1839 and 1840 with the subtitle "Italian Revenge".[6][7] Edgar Allan Poe is considered to have been influenced by "The Iron Shroud" when he wrote "The Pit and the Pendulum" having got his idea for the shrinking chamber from Mudford's story.[8][9][10] Mudford was born in London, where his father made a living as a shopkeeper in Piccadilly. He was influenced by John Milton, Joseph Addison, Samuel Johnson, William Cowper, William Collins, Mark Akenside, Thomas Gray, and Oliver Goldsmith.[4]
Life and work
Mudford was born in Half Moon Street, Piccadilly, London, on 8 January 1782.
Mudford has been described by
In 1803 Mudford published his first novel, Augustus and Mary also known as The Maid of Buttermere: A Domestic Tale. Following that, Mudford made a living occupied by more mundane work such as translating foreign works and editing essays and other literary works. He also wrote his second novel Nubilia in Search of a Husband which was his response to the popular Coelebs in Search of a Wife by Hannah More and was clearly aimed at capitalising on the market success of the novel by More.[4]
As a young man Mudford showed his ambition by contacting influential and powerful men. When only seventeen, Mudford approached the producer of the
At the age of forty he lost a lot of money in speculative ventures in the stock market and had to start again financially. He worked very hard and accepted an offer from the conservative party in East Kent to become the editor of the Kentish Observer. He finally settled in Canterbury and eventually became the owner of the Kentish Observer. He contributed regularly to Blackwood's Magazine and sometimes he wrote a story, a review, and a political paper in the same issue. His series of First and Last stories were very popular as were his contributions under the nickname of The Silent Member. In 1841 Mudford moved back to London where he succeeded Theodore Hook as editor of the John Bull magazine all the while maintaining his connection with the Kentish Observer. During this period his health started declining but he still kept a busy work schedule. In 1848 he wrote his last article on the topic of the French Revolution which appeared in the John Bull on 5 March of the same year.[2]
Mudford, while employed at the Morning Chronicle, met
Charles Dickens used a parody of Mudford's name when he wrote the Mudfog Sketches, creating the town of Mudfog as a parody of Chatham.[4] Mudford was also a founder member of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and was among those who voted to create the organisation on 16 June 1824 at Old Slaughter's Coffee House, London.[15]
Mudford died at 5
Selected works
- A Critical Examination of the Writings of Richard Cumberland, Sherwood Pub., Neely, and Jones, 1812
- A critical enquiry (1802), Garland Pub., 1974
- The life of Richard Cumberland, esq., Sherwood, Neely and Jones Pub., 1812
- A critical enquiry into the writings of Samuel Johnson in which it is shewn that the pictures of life contained in the Rambler, and other publications of that celebrated writer have a dangerous tendency. M. Jones, 1803
- Sudario de Hierro y Otros Cuentos Goticos by James Hogg, John Howison, William Mudford, Celeste Pub., July 1999 Paperback
- The Iron Shroud, Viking Press, June 1973 Hardcover
- The Five Nights of St. Albans, James Blackwood & Co Pub., June 1929 Textbook Binding
- Nubilia in search of a husband, printed for J. Ridgeway, Piccadilly; and Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, 1809
- Nubilia in search of a husband, Bradford & Inskeep, T. & G. Palmer Pub., 1809 [microform]
- An historical account of the campaign in the Netherlands in 1815, under His Grace the Duke of Wellington, and Marshal Prince Blücher, printed for Henry Colburn, 1817
- The Contemplatist: a series of essays upon morals and literature Sherwood Pub., 1810, 336 p.
- Stephen Dugard, a novel, London: Richard Bentley, 3 volumes, 1840.[16]
References
- ^ Voller, Jack G. "William Mudford." The Literary Gothic. 8 May 2008
- ^ a b c d e Lee, Sidney, ed. (1894). . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 39. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 253–254.
- ^ doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/19482. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Online Biography of William Mudford from the Dictionary of Literary Biography hosted by BookRags
- ^ "The Iron Shroud" at Google Books
- ISBN 0-521-39100-8.
- ^ White, William (1993). "Volume 238". Notes and Queries. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 25 July 2010.
- ^ Online Biography of William Mudford from the Dictionary of Literary Biography hosted by BookRags p. 2
- ^ Oxford Journals Critique of William Mudford Notes and Queries 31 July 1943 p. 83
- ISBN 978-0-19-283771-4Length 336 pages Quote: "Explanatory Note #254 p. 298: Poe apparently got the idea for his shrinking chamber from an 1830 Blackwood's story titled the 'Iron Shroud'"
- ^ The Contemplatist: a series of essays upon morals and literature Author William Mudford Publisher Sherwood, 1810 Original from the University of California Digitized 19 May 2009 336 pages from Google Books
- ^ THE TALE OF TERROR Study of the Gothic Romance BY EDITH BIRKHEAD M.A. ASSISTANT LECTURER IN ENGLISH LITERATURE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL FORMERLY NOB ftE FELLOW IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL LONDON CONSTABLE 6f COMPANY LTD.1921 GLASGOW: PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS BY ROBERT MACLEHOSB AND CO. LTD.
- ^ Title Notes and queries Publisher Oxford University Press, 1888 Original from Harvard University Digitized 7 March 2007 From Google Books. Definition of "Playing at Cherry-Pit with Satan": Referring to the game of throwing cherry-pits in a hole and also found as an expression in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and used to indicate that Malvolio is on familiar terms with the Devil. p. 37
- ^ a b American Notes & Queries – a Journal for the Curious 1943–44 By Hesperides
- ^ Kathryn Shevelow, For the Love of Animals: The Rise of the Animal Protection Movement (New York: Henry Holt, 2008), p 269. Also see Arthur W. Moss, Valiant Crusade: The History of the RSPCA (London: Cassell, 1961), p 23.
- ^ Stephen Dugard, a novel. HathiTrust digital library. 1840 – via HathiTrust.
External links
- Works by or about William Mudford at Internet Archive
- Works by William Mudford at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Works by William Mudford at The Open Library
- Mudfog and Other Sketches by Charles Dickens from Project Gutenberg