CHARLES WENTWORTH DILKE BIOGRAPHY

DILKE, CHARLES WENTWORTH (1789-1864). —Critic and writer on literature, served for many years in the Navy Pay-Office, on retiring from which he devoted himself to literary pursuits. He had in 1814-16 made a continuation of Dodsley's Collection of English Plays , and in 1829 he became part proprietor and ed. of The Athenæum , the influence of which he greatly extended. In 1846 he resigned the editorship, and assumed that of The Daily News , but contributed to The Athenæum his famous papers on Pope , Burke , Junius , etc., and shed much new light on his subjects. His grandson, the present Sir C.W. Dilke, pub. these writings in 1875 under the title, Papers of a Critic .