Excerpt from Douglas Jerrold Dramatist and Wit, Vol. 1 of 2 IT is now more than twenty years since the editor of St. Nicholas invited the last surviving daughter of Douglas Jerrold to contribute a paper on her father's early life to that magazine; this my aunt was unwilling to do, and asked that I should be permitted to write the article instead. Later she expressed the hope that I would some day undertake the work which I have here completed, and gave me to that end such materials as remained in her possession. A biography of Douglas Jerrold was written shortly after his death by his eldest son, William Blanchard Jerrold, but in the years that have elapsed since then nearly all the people who knew the dramatist, who had listened to his wit, have passed away; some of these lived to write their reminiscences of the old time, others have in turn become the subjects of biography, and the belongings of others - including such letters, papers and books as are the raw material for the biographer - have been scattered by the rise and fall of the auctioneer's hammer. Thus it is that fresh material has become available for giving more completely the story of the life of Douglas Jerrold. Such fuller story should at least prove serviceable in correcting the errors concerning Jerrold which are to be found in most works of reference, as well as certain others which have been quoted again and again as facts but which research shows to be fictions. It may be said that where in this work statements and dates differ from those given in the established works of reference, in the earlier biography, or biographical articles, the present work has the authority of immediately contemporary documentary or printed evidence. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.