English intellectual and composer
Theodore Hook, portrait by
Eden Upton Eddis
Theodore Edward Hook
(22 September 1788 ? 24 August 1841) was an English
man of letters
and composer and briefly a civil servant in
Mauritius
. He is best known for his
practical jokes
, particularly the
Berners Street hoax
in 1809. The
world's first postcard
was received by Hook in 1840; he likely posted it to himself.
[1]
Biography
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Early life
[
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Hook was born in Charlotte Street,
Bedford Square
, London. His father,
James Hook
(1746?1827), was a composer; his elder brother, also called
James Hook
, became
Dean of Worcester
.
He spent a year at
Harrow School
and subsequently matriculated at the
University of Oxford
. His father took delight in exhibiting the boy's musical and metrical gifts, and the precocious Theodore became a pet of the
green room
. At the age of 16, in conjunction with his father, he scored a dramatic success with
The Soldier's Return
, a comic opera, and it followed up with a series of popular ventures with
John Liston
and
Charles Mathews
, including
Tekeli
.
Hook then became a
playboy
and practical joker best known for the
Berners Street hoax
in 1810 in which he arranged for dozens of tradesmen, and notables such as the
Lord Mayor of London
, the
Governor of the Bank of England
, the Chairman of the
East India Company
and the
Duke of Gloucester
to visit Mrs Tottenham at 54
Berners Street
to win a bet that he could transform any house in London into the most talked-about address within a week.
Career
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]
He took up residence at
St Mary Hall
,
Oxford University
, leaving after two terms to resume his former life. His gift of improvising songs charmed the
Prince Regent
into a declaration that something must be done for Hook, who was appointed accountant-general and treasurer of
Mauritius
with a salary of £2,000 a year (£142,325; US$194,771 in 2021 terms). He was the life and soul of the island from his arrival in October 1813, but a serious deficiency was discovered in the treasury accounts in 1817, and he was arrested and brought to England on a criminal charge. A sum of about £12,000 (£1,054,500; US$1.44 million in 2021 terms) had been extracted by a deputy official, and Hook was held responsible.
Hook,
c.
1810
During the scrutiny of the audit board, he lived obscurely and maintained himself by writing for magazines and newspapers. In 1820, he launched the newspaper
John Bull
, the champion of high
Toryism
and the virulent detractor of
Queen Caroline
. Witty criticism and pitiless invective secured it a large circulation, and Hook derived, for the first year at least, an income of £2,000. He was, however, arrested for the second time on account of his debt to the state, which he made no effort to defray.
While he was confined in a
sponging-house
from 1823 to 1825, he wrote the nine volumes of stories afterwards collected under the title of
Sayings and Doings
(1824?1828). In the early 1820s, he helped the singer
Michael Kelly
compile his
Reminiscences
, which include details of working with
Mozart
. In the remaining 23 years of his life, he poured forth 38 volumes besides articles, squibs and sketches. His novels have frequent passages of racy narrative and vivid portraiture. They include
Maxwell
(1830), a portrait of his friend the Reverend E. Cannon;
Love and Pride
(1833); the autobiographical
Gilbert Gurney
(1835) and
Gurney Married
(1838);
Jack Brag
(1837) and
Peregrine Bunce
(1842). He did not finish a biographical work on
Charles Mathews
. His last novel was
Births, Marriages and Deaths
(1839).
The world's oldest
postcard
was sent to Hook in 1840,
[1]
bearing a
penny black
stamp. Hook probably created and posted the card to himself as a practical joke on the postal service, since the image is a caricature of workers in the
post office
.
[1]
[2]
In 2002, the postcard sold for a record £31,750.
[1]
Later life and death
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Work had already begun to tell on his health when Hook returned to his old habits and a prolonged attempt to combine industry and dissipation resulted in the confession that he was done up in purse, in mind and in body, too, at last. He died at home in Fulham on 24 August 1841. His estate was seized by
the Treasury
. He never married but lived with Mary Anne Doughty; they had six children.
Hook is remembered as one of the most brilliant figures of
Georgian times
. He inspired the characters of Lucian Gay in
Benjamin Disraeli
's novel
Coningsby
and Mr Wagg in
Thackeray
's
Vanity Fair
. His style was parodied by the Smith brothers in
Rejected Addresses
(1812).
Coleridge
praised him as being "as true a genius as Dante".
Notes
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]
- ^
a
b
c
d
"Oldest postcard sells for £31,750"
.
BBC News
. 8 March 2002
. Retrieved
16 June
2012
.
- ^
Arifa Akbar, "Oldest picture postcard in the world snapped up for £31,750",
The Independent
, 9 March 2002.
References
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]
- Richard Harris Barham
,
Life and Remains of Hook
(3rd ed, 1877).
- John Gibson Lockhart
,
Review of
Peregrine Bunce
,
Quarterly Review
(May 1843), 53-108. Includes biographical sketch of Hook.
- Bill Newton Dunn,
The Man Who Was John Bull
(1996 but still in print), Allendale Publishing, 29 Old Palace Lane, Richmond TW9 1PQ, GB
- Graeme Harper, 'Hook, Theodore Edward (1788?1841)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, January 2008
Retrieved 17 September 2012
Attribution
External links
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