About the site

BioText home
"Discursive Hosts"
Acknowledgements
Search

Biographical

Brief Introduction to Hone
Chronology
Biographical Fragments
Index of Hone Correspondence

Bibliographical

Short Title Bibliography
Annotated Bibliography
Secondary Sources
Archive directory

Etexts

Etext directory
The Political House that Jack Built (1819) — [on Romantic Circles]
The Every-Day Book (1825-26)

Letters and Documents, 1780-1818

These letters and short documents reflect Hone's early public life, from the time of his initial professional employment up through the 1817 libel trials that vaulted him to fame. The letters show Hone's early endeavors to combine a philanthropic spirit with a profession that might sustain his rapidly growing family. The letter to Wakefield, for example, presents the plan for a new sort of asylum for the humane treatment of the mentally incompetent which, if brought to fruition, would have had Hone as its superintendent. In addition, Hone was always involved in the book trades, as a bookseller, an auctioneer for private libraries, and, increasingly, as a writer and publisher of social and political polemics. These endeavors eventually led to libel charges from the Attorney General and Hone's famous courtroom victories in December of 1817.

In addition to letters written by Hone, I have also included several selected letters written to Hone in order to provide a more comprehensive sense of the correspondence. Where highlighted, the dates of the letters (YYYY-MM-DD) will link to full-text reproductions; many of the more prominent correspondents are linked to the "Who's Who" document; and where it has seemed useful I have also linked to the appropriate bibliographical and biographical resources elsewhere in the Biotext.