Thackeray

Thackeray

Satirist and humorist of the mid- 19th century, William Makepeace Thackeray was born in Calcutta, India on July 18, 1811 where his father was in service to the East India Company. His reputation rests chiefly on the picaresque The Luck of Barry Lyndon (1844) and the satirical Vanity Fair (1847–48). It is said that in his novels Thackeray held up a mirror to Victorian manners and morals, gently satirizing, with a tone of sophisticated acceptance, the inevitable failure of the individual and of society. In 1843 he began writing for the newly created Punch magazine, where he published The Snobs of England, By One of Themselves, later collected as The Book of Snobs (1848). This work popularised the modern meaning of the word "snob." In 1860 he founded The Cornhill Magazine, becoming its editor and contributed to the magazine as a columnist, producing his Roundabout Papers for it. He died on December 24, 1863 in London. A commemorative bust of him can be found in Westminster Abbey.