Editing William Makepeace Thackeray (section)

==Biography==
===Early life===
Thackeray, an only child, was born in [[Kolkata|Calcutta]],{{efn|Calcutta was the capital of the [[British Empire]] in [[British India|India]] at the time. Thackeray was born on the grounds of what is now the [[Armenian College & Philanthropic Academy]], on the old Freeschool Street, now called [[Mirza Ghalib Street]].}} [[British India]], where his father, Richmond Thackeray (1&nbsp;September 1781 – 13&nbsp;September 1815), was secretary to the Board of Revenue in the [[East India Company]]. His mother, Anne Becher (1792–1864), was the second daughter of Harriet Becher and John Harman Becher, who was also a secretary (writer) for the East India Company.<ref>{{cite book |last=Aplin |first=John |year=2010 |title=The Inheritance of Genius : A Thackeray family biography, 1798-1875 |publisher=Lutterworth Press |isbn=978-0718842109 |location=Cambridge, UK |oclc=855607313}}</ref> His father was a grandson of [[Thomas Thackeray]] (1693–1760), headmaster of [[Harrow School]].<ref name=odnb>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Thackeray, William Makepeace (1811–1863) |encyclopedia=[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]] |year=2018 |edition=online |doi=10.1093/odnb/9780192683120.013.27155}}</ref>

Richmond died in 1815, which caused Anne to send her son to England that same year, while she remained in India. The ship on which he travelled made a short stopover at [[Saint Helena]], where the imprisoned [[Napoleon]] was pointed out to him. Once in England, he was educated at schools in [[Southampton]] and [[Chiswick]], and then at [[Charterhouse School]], where he overlapped with [[John Leech (caricaturist)|John Leech]]. Thackeray disliked Charterhouse,<ref name=Dunton-1896>{{cite book |last=Dunton |first=Larkin |year=1896 |title=The World and Its People |url=https://archive.org/details/worldanditspeop01duntgoog |publisher=Silver, Burdett |page=[https://archive.org/details/worldanditspeop01duntgoog/page/n31 25]}}</ref> and parodied it in his fiction as "Slaughterhouse". Nevertheless, Thackeray was honoured in the Charterhouse Chapel with a monument after his death.<ref>{{cite web |title=William Makepeace Thackeray, Charterhouse Pupil and Novelist |url=https://thecharterhouse.org/blog/william-makepeace-thackeray-brother-novelist/ |website=The Charterhouse |access-date=8 June 2024 |language=en |date=27 May 2015}}</ref> 
===College education===
Illness in his last year at Charterhouse, during which he reportedly grew to his full height of {{height|ft=6|in=3}}, postponed his matriculation at [[Trinity College, Cambridge]], until February&nbsp;1829.<ref name=odnb/>

Never very keen on academic studies, Thackeray left Cambridge in 1830, but some of his earliest published writing appeared in two university periodicals, ''The Snob'' and ''The Gownsman''.<ref>{{acad |id=THKY826WM |name=Thackeray, William Makepeace}}</ref>
[[Image:William Makepeace Thackeray - self caricature - Project Gutenberg eText 19222.jpg|thumb|Self Caricature by Thackeray]]
Thackeray then travelled for some time on [[Continental Europe]], visiting Paris and [[Weimar]], where he met [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]]. He returned to England and began to study law at the [[Middle Temple]], but soon gave that up. On reaching age&nbsp;21, he came into his inheritance from his father, but he squandered much of it on gambling and on funding two unsuccessful newspapers, ''The National Standard'' and ''The Constitutional'', for which he had hoped to write. He also lost a good part of his fortune in the collapse of two Indian banks. Forced to consider a profession to support himself, he turned first to art, which he studied in Paris, but did not pursue it, except in later years as the illustrator of some of his own novels and other writings.{{citation needed|date=October 2015}}
===Marriage and children===
Thackeray's years of semi-idleness ended on 20&nbsp;August 1836, when he married Isabella Gethin Shawe (1816–1894), second daughter of Isabella Creagh Shawe and Matthew Shawe, a colonel who had died after distinguished service, primarily in India. The Thackerays had three children, all daughters: [[Anne Isabella Thackeray Ritchie|Anne Isabella]] (1837–1919), Jane (who died at eight months old), and [[Harriet Stephen|Harriet Marian]] (1840–1875), who married Sir&nbsp;[[Leslie Stephen]], editor, biographer and philosopher.{{cn|date=January 2023}}
===Professional journalist===
Thackeray now began "writing for his life", as he put it, turning to journalism in an effort to support his young family. He primarily worked for ''[[Fraser's Magazine]]'', a sharp-witted and sharp-tongued [[conservative]] publication for which he produced art criticism, short fictional sketches, and two longer fictional works, ''[[Catherine (Thackeray novel)|Catherine]]'' and ''[[The Luck of Barry Lyndon]]''. Between 1837 and 1840, he also reviewed books for ''[[The Times]]''.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Gary |last=Simons |year=2007 |title=Thackeray's contributions to ''The Times'' |journal=Victorian Periodicals Review |volume=40 |issue=4 |pages=332–354|doi=10.1353/vpr.2008.0002 |s2cid=163798912 }}</ref> 

He was also a regular contributor to ''[[The Morning Chronicle]]'' and ''The Foreign Quarterly Review''. Later, through his connection to the illustrator [[John Leech (caricaturist)|John Leech]], he began writing for the newly created magazine ''[[Punch (magazine)|Punch]]'', in which he published ''The Snob Papers'', later collected as ''[[The Book of Snobs]]''. This work popularised the modern meaning of the word "snob".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Dabney |first=Ross H. |date=March 1980 |title=Review: ''The Book of Snob'' by William Makepeace Thackeray, John Sutherland |journal=Nineteenth-Century Fiction |volume=34 |number=4 |pages=456–462, 455 |doi=10.2307/2933542 |jstor=2933542}}</ref> 

Thackeray was a regular contributor to ''Punch'' between 1843 and 1854.<ref name=Gray-2013-01-23>{{cite web |first=Peter |last=Gray |date=23 January 2013  |title=''Punch'' and the Great Famine |website=History Ireland (historyireland.com) |department=18th–19th century history |url=https://www.historyireland.com/18th-19th-century-history/punch-and-the-great-famine-by-peter-gray/ |access-date=17 July 2019}}</ref>
[[File:Crowe-Thackeray 1845.jpg|thumb|left|Thackeray portrayed by [[Eyre Crowe (painter)|Eyre Crowe]], 1845]]
===Mental decline of his wife and romantic relationships===
In Thackeray's personal life, his wife Isabella succumbed to depression after the birth of their third child in 1840. Finding that he could get no work done at home, he spent more and more time away, until September&nbsp;1840, when he realised how grave his wife's condition was. Struck by guilt, he set out with his wife to Ireland. During the crossing, she threw herself from a water-closet into the sea, but she was pulled from the waters. They fled back home after a four-week battle with her mother. From November&nbsp;1840 to February&nbsp;1842, Isabella was in and out of professional care, as her condition waxed and waned.<ref name=odnb/>

She eventually deteriorated into a permanent state of detachment from reality. Thackeray desperately sought cures for her, but nothing worked, and she ended up in two different asylums in or near Paris until 1845, after which Thackeray took her back to England, where he installed her with a Mrs.&nbsp;Bakewell at Camberwell. Isabella outlived her husband by 30&nbsp;years, in the end being cared for by a family named Thompson in [[Leigh-on-Sea]] at Southend, until her death in 1894.<ref>{{cite book |first=Ann |last=Monsarrat |year=1980 |title=An Uneasy Victorian: Thackeray the man, 1811–1863 |place=London, UK |publisher=Cassell |pages=121, 128, 134, 161}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=John |last=Aplin |year=2011 |title=Memory and Legacy: A Thackeray family biography, 1876–1919 |place=Cambridge, UK |publisher=Lutterworth |pages=5, 136}}</ref> After his wife's illness, Thackeray  never established another permanent relationship. He did pursue other women, however, in particular Mrs.&nbsp;[[Jane Octavia Brookfield|Jane Brookfield]] and Sally Baxter. In 1851, Mr.&nbsp;Brookfield barred Thackeray from further visits or correspondence with Jane. Baxter, an American twenty years Thackeray's junior whom he met during a lecture tour in New York City in 1852, married another man in 1855.{{citation needed|date=October 2015}}
===Anti-Irish works for Punch===
In the early 1840s, Thackeray had some success with two travel books, ''The Paris Sketch Book'' and ''The Irish Sketch Book'', the latter marked by its hostility towards [[Irish Catholics]]. However, as the book appealed to [[anti-Irish sentiment]] in Britain at the time, Thackeray was given the job of being ''Punch''<nowiki/>'s Irish expert, often under the pseudonym Hibernis Hibernior ("more Irish than the Irish").<ref name=Gray-2013-01-23/> Thackeray became responsible for creating ''Punch''<nowiki/>'s notoriously hostile and negative depictions of the Irish during the [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Great Irish Famine]] of 1845 to 1851.<ref name=Gray-2013-01-23/>
===Status as a celebrity and lecture tours===
Thackeray achieved more recognition with his ''Snob Papers'' (serialised 1846/7, published in book form in 1848), but the work that really established his fame was the novel ''Vanity Fair'', which first appeared in serialised instalments beginning in January&nbsp;1847. Even before ''Vanity Fair'' completed its serial run, Thackeray had become a [[celebrity]], sought after by the very lords and ladies whom he satirised. They hailed him as the equal of [[Charles Dickens]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Brander |first=Laurence |title=Thackeray, William Makepeace |website=Ebscohost |publisher=Britannica Biographies |url=http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/32424936 |access-date=3 June 2019}}</ref>

[[File:WM Thackeray slnsw.jpg|thumb|Portrait of William Makepeace Thackeray, c. 1863]]
He remained "at the top of the tree", as he put it, for the rest of his life, during which he produced several large novels, notably ''[[Pendennis]]'', ''[[The Newcomes]]'', and ''[[The History of Henry Esmond]]'', despite various illnesses, including a near-fatal one that struck him in 1849 in the middle of writing ''Pendennis''. He twice visited the United States on lecture tours during this period. Longtime [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] journalist [[Benjamin Perley Poore|B.P. Poore]] described Thackeray on one of those tours:<blockquote>The citizens of Washington enjoyed a rare treat when Thackeray came to deliver his lectures on the English essayists, wits, and humorists of the eighteenth century. Accustomed to the spread-eagle style of oratory too prevalent at the [[United States Capitol|Capitol]], they were delighted with the pleasing voice and easy manner of the burly, gray-haired, rosy-cheeked Briton, who made no gestures, but stood most of the time with his hands in his pockets, as if he were talking with friends at a cozy fireside.<ref name=Poore>{{cite book |last=Poore |first=Ben. Perley |year=1886 |title=Perley's Reminiscences of Sixty Years in the National Metropolis |volume=1 |pages=430–431 |url=https://archive.org/details/perleysreminisce00poor/page/n439/mode/2up?view=theater |via=Internet Archive (archive.org)}}</ref></blockquote> Thackeray also gave lectures in London on the English humorists of the eighteenth century, and on the first four [[House of Hanover|Hanoverian]] monarchs. The latter series was published in book form in 1861 as ''The Four Georges: Sketches of Manners, Morals, Court, and Town Life ''.<ref name=odnb/>
===Failed candidate for the Liberal Party===
In July&nbsp;1857, Thackeray stood unsuccessfully as a [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] for the city of Oxford in Parliament.<ref name=odnb/> Although not the most fiery agitator, Thackeray was always a decided liberal in his politics, and he promised to vote for the ballot in extension of the suffrage and was ready to accept triennial parliaments.<ref name=odnb/> He was narrowly beaten by [[Edward Cardwell, 1st Viscount Cardwell|Cardwell]], who received 1,070&nbsp;votes, as against 1,005&nbsp;for Thackeray.<ref name=odnb/>
===Magazine editor===
In 1860, Thackeray became editor of the newly established ''[[Cornhill Magazine]]'',<ref>{{cite book |last=Pearson |first=Richard |date=1 November 2017  |title=W.M. Thackery and the Mediated Text: Writing for periodicals in the mid-nineteenth century |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781351774093 |lang=en |page=289 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=klM8DwAAQBAJ&q=%22The+Cornhill+magazine%22+editor+thackeray&pg=PT289 |via=Google Books}}</ref> but he was never comfortable in the role, preferring to contribute to the magazine as the writer of a column called "Roundabout Papers".{{citation needed|date=October 2015}}
===Health problems===

Thackeray's health worsened during the 1850s, and he was plagued by a recurring [[Urethral stricture|stricture of the urethra]] that laid him up for days at a time. He also felt that he had lost much of his creative impetus. He worsened matters by excessive eating and drinking and avoiding exercise, though he enjoyed riding (he kept a horse). He has been described as "the greatest literary glutton who ever lived". His main activity apart from writing was "gutting and gorging".<ref>{{cite magazine |first=Bee |last=Wilson |date=27 November 1998 |title=Vanity Fare |magazine=[[New Statesman]] |url=http://www.newstatesman.com/vanity-fare |access-date=4 January 2014}}</ref> He could not break his addiction to spicy peppers, further ruining his digestion.
[[File:William Thackeray grave Kensal Green 2014.jpg|thumb|left|alt=A granite, horizontal gravestone fenced by metal railings, among other graves in a cemetery|Thackeray's grave at [[Kensal Green Cemetery]], London, photographed in 2014]]
===Death and funeral===
On 23 December 1863, after returning from dining out and before dressing for bed, he suffered a stroke. He was found dead in his bed the following morning. His death at the age of fifty-two was unexpected and shocked his family, his friends and the reading public. An estimated 7,000&nbsp;people attended his funeral at [[Kensington Gardens]]. He was buried on 29 December at [[Kensal Green Cemetery]], and a memorial bust sculpted by [[Carlo Marochetti|Marochetti]] can be found in [[Westminster Abbey]].<ref name=odnb/>

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