Thomas Talfourd
Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd ( born May 26, 1795 in Reading, Berkshire, † March 13, 1854 in Stafford ) was a British parliamentarian, lawyer and author.
Talfourd published his first book of poetry in his school years. He nevertheless decided to study law, probably as a pupil of Joseph Chitty. He has published books of literary criticism. His most successful book during his lifetime was to attempt to estimate the poetical talent of the present age. Talfourd was so and numerous other publications in with to anchor the poetry of the time in the public consciousness. As a critic, he wrote mostly for the London Magazine and New Monthly. His tragedy Ion he published in 1835, this was performed a year with William Macready in the title role in Covent Garden and was a great success with the public.
In 1821 he was admitted as a barrister. The Queen appointed him in 1833 to the Serjeant -at -law. His reputation was there of an honest and good, if not brilliant lawyer who represented his serious thing and not resorted to dishonest litigation tactics. In 1849 he was judge of the Court of Common Pleas.
As a writer, he campaigned for the abolition of the pillory in the British penal system. For him, the pillory was unsuitable to reform offenders, and would set only in her life, which ultimately led to the gallows.
In 1835 he was elected for the first time as MP for Reading in the British House of Commons. As a parliamentarian, he advocated to strengthen copyright protection of books. But he suggested in 1837 a law before which should summarize the numerous scattered provisions for copyright protection and rearrange. Among other things, he wanted to increase the temporal Befristigung of copyright 28 years after publication for 60 years after the author's death.
Despite staunch resistance he ran this campaign over many years and also was not discouraged, the matter completely threw out as Minister Macaulay meantime from the deliberations. The efforts ultimately led to the Copyright Act of 1842, which significantly extended the copyright periods, but otherwise barely reached one of Talfourds far-reaching goals.
Talfourd published the letters and works of the writer Charles Lamb, whose close friend he was. At the same time he wrote his first biography. For further acquaintances included William Godwin, Leigh Hunt, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Talfourd was a friend of Charles Dickens, who dedicated his novel The Pickwick Papers. He also advised him in legal matters in Dickens ' numerous processes and actions against reprinting, the unauthorized Dickens's printed works.
The Dickens research suggested that Talfourd was the model for the character of Thomas Traddles in Dickens's novel David Copperfield.
In 1822, he married Rachael Rutt. Talfourd and often a welcome guest was on Dinners, in salons and at parties, his name appears in numerous letters of the time, and he is almost always mentioned friendly. Talfourd suffered a stroke in the courtroom while he read out an indictment, and died a few hours later.