Charles Wentworth Dilke: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|English liberal critic and writer (1789–1864)}}

'''Charles Wentworth Dilke''' ([[1789]] - [[1864]]), English 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]]-[[1816|16]] made a continuation of Dodsley's ''[[Collection of English Plays]]'', and in [[1829]] he became part proprietor and editor of ''[[Athenaeum (magazine)|Athenaeum]]'' magazine, the influence of which he greatly extended. In [[1846]] he resigned the editorship, and assumed that of ''[[The Daily News]]'', but contributed to ''Athenaeum'' his famous papers on [[Alexander Pope]], [[Edmund Burke]], [[Junius]], etc., and shed much new light on his subjects. His grandson, [[Charles Wentworth Dilke, 2nd Baronet|Sir C.W. Dilke]], published these writings in [[1875]] under the title, ''[[Papers of a Critic]]''.

{{Other people|Charles Dilke}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

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| name = Charles Wentworth Dilke<!-- deleting this line will use the article title as the page name -->

| image = [[File:Charles Wentworth Dilke (1789-1864).jpg|230px]]

| alt =

| caption = Painting of Charles Wentworth Dilke, GuilHall Art Gallery

| pseudonym =

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| birth_date = 1789

| birth_place = [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]]

| death_date = 1864

| death_place = [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|United Kingdom]]

| occupation = Civil servant, critic, editor

| language = [[English language|English]]

| nationality = [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|British]]

| ethnicity =

| citizenship =

| education =

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| period =

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| spouse = Maria

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| children = [[Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke, 1st Baronet]]

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| resting_place = [[Kensal Green Cemetery]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/10640/charles-wentworth-dilke|title=Charles Dilke Memorial|website=www.findagrave.com}}</ref>

}}

'''Charles Wentworth Dilke''' (1789&ndash;1864) was an English liberal critic and writer on literature.

==Professional life ==

{{A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature}}

He served for many years in the Navy Pay-Office, on retiring from which in 1830 he devoted himself to literary pursuits.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Jenkins|first1=Roy|title=Dilke – A Victorian tragedy|date=1958|publisher=Papermac|___location=London|isbn=0333620208|page=16|edition=1996 paperback|ref=Jenkins 1996}}</ref>

== Literary life==

His liberal political views and literary interests brought him into contact with [[James Henry Leigh Hunt|Leigh Hunt]], the editor of ''[[The Examiner (1808–86)|The Examiner]]''. He had in 1814&ndash;16 made a continuation of [[Robert Dodsley]]'s ''[[Collection of English Plays]]'', and in 1829 he became part proprietor and editor of ''[[The Athenaeum (British magazine)|The Athenaeum]]'' magazine, the influence of which he greatly extended. In 1846 he resigned the editorship, and assumed that of ''[[The Daily News (UK)|The Daily News]]'', but contributed to ''The Athenaeum'' papers on [[Alexander Pope]], [[Edmund Burke]], [[Junius (writer)|Junius]], and others. His grandson, [[Sir Charles Dilke, 2nd Baronet|Sir Charles Dilke]], published these writings in 1875 under the title, ''[[Papers of a Critic]]''. Thanks to his grandson, Dilke is also acknowledged as the author of ''{{visible anchor|The Source and Remedy of the National Difficulties}}'', published anonymously in 1821, which exercised an important influence on [[Karl Marx|Marx]].<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://academic.oup.com/cpe/article-abstract/38/1/59/5505408?redirectedFrom=fulltext |last1= De Vivo|first1= Giancarlo|date=2019 |title=Marx's pamphletist: Charles Wentworth Dilke and his tract on the source and remedy of the national difficulties (1821) |journal=Contributions to Political Economy |volume= 38 | pages= 59–73|doi= 10.1093/cpe/bzz016|url-access= subscription }}</ref>

== Wentworth Place==

{{UK-writer-stub}}

Around October 1816, Dilke and his friend [[Charles Armitage Brown]] moved into a pair of semi-detached houses later called [[Wentworth Place]] in [[Hampstead]], [[London]]. The poet [[John Keats]] lived with Brown around 1818&ndash;20 and was well known to Dilke. In 1822 Brown moved to [[Italy]], selling his share of the property to Dilke. Today Wentworth Place is known as [[Keats House]] and is a museum to John Keats.

==Personal life==

[[Category:1789 births|Dilke, Charles Wentworth]]

Dilke married Maria Walker (1790–1850), daughter of an official in the East India Company, on 10 October 1806. They had one child, (Charles) [[Wentworth Dilke]] (1810–1869). After her death and that of his daughter-in-law in 1853, he devoted increasing time to the upbringing of his grandson and namesake, the future cabinet minister and [[Sir Charles Dilke, 2nd Baronet|the 2nd Baronet]].<ref>Jenkins 1996 p. 17</ref>

[[Category:1875 deaths|Dilke, Charles Wentworth]]

[[Category:English literary critics|Dilke, Charles Wentworth]]

==Bibliography==

[[Category:British magazine editors|Dilke, Charles Wentworth]]

*Garrett, William, ''Charles Wentworth Dilke''. Boston, Twayne, 1982.

*Garrett, William, "[[William Hazlitt|Hazlitt's]] Debt to C. W. Dilke". In: ''The Keats-Shelley Memorial Bulletin'', No. XV, 1964, pp.&nbsp;37–42.

*Garrett, William, "Two Dilke Letters". In: ''The Keats-Shelley Memorial Bulletin'', No. XXVII, 1976, pp.&nbsp;1–9.

==References==

{{wikisource|works=or}}

*{{A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature|ref=none}}

==Notes==

<references/>

==External links==

;Biographical material

*[https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/keats Keats House, Hampstead] Dilke's former home, now a museum to Keats

* {{UK National Archives ID}}

;Works

*[https://archive.org/stream/oldplaysbeingac02dodsgoog#page/n8/mode/2up ''Old Plays; being a continuation of Dodsley's Collection, Vol. 1''], London, 1816, at the [https://archive.org/index.php Internet Archive]. Accessed 28 March 2012

*[https://archive.org/stream/oldplaysbeingac00dodsgoog#page/n6/mode/2up ''Old Plays; being a continuation of Dodsley's Collection, Vol. 2''], London, 1816, at the [https://archive.org/index.php Internet Archive]. Accessed 28 March 2012

*[https://archive.org/stream/oldplaysbeingac01dodsgoog#page/n6/mode/2up ''Old Plays; being a continuation of Dodsley's Collection, Vol. 3''], London, 1816, at the [https://archive.org/index.php Internet Archive]. Accessed 28 March 2012

*[https://archive.org/stream/oldplaysbeingcon04dilkuoft#page/n5/mode/2up ''Old Plays; being a continuation of Dodsley's Collection, Vol. 4''], London, 1816, at the [https://archive.org/index.php Internet Archive]. Accessed 28 March 2012

*[https://archive.org/stream/oldenglishplays04dilkgoog#page/n4/mode/2up ''Old Plays; being a continuation of Dodsley's Collection, Vol. 5''], London, 1816, at the [https://archive.org/index.php Internet Archive]. Accessed 28 March 2012

*[https://archive.org/stream/oldplaysbeingac03dodsgoog#page/n6/mode/2up ''Old Plays; being a continuation of Dodsley's Collection, Vol. 6''], London, 1816, at the [https://archive.org/index.php Internet Archive]. Accessed 28 March 2012

* [https://archive.org/download/papersofcritic01dilkiala/papersofcritic01dilkiala.pdf ''The Papers of a Critic, Vol. I''] Accessed 2011-11-12

* [https://archive.org/download/papersofcritic02dilkiala/papersofcritic02dilkiala.pdf ''The Papers of a Critic, Vol. II''] Accessed 2011-11-12

;Criticism

*[https://archive.org/stream/charleswentworth00garrrich#page/n0/mode/2up ''Charles Wentworth Dilke as a Literary Critic''] unpublished dissertation by William Garrett, University of Florida, June 1958, at the [https://archive.org/index.php Internet Archive]. Accessed 28 March 2012

{{Authority control}}

[[Category{{DEFAULTSORT:1875 deaths|Dilke, Charles Wentworth]]}}

[[Category:English literary critics|Dilke, Charles Wentworth]]

[[Category:BritishEnglish magazine editors|Dilke, Charles Wentworth]]

[[Category:1789 births]]

[[Category:1864 deaths]]

[[Category:Burials at Kensal Green Cemetery]]

[[Category:1789Dilke birthsfamily|Dilke, Charles Wentworth]]