A portrait of the Romantic- and Victorian-era essayist, poet, and critic describes his relationship with such contemporaries as Keats, Shelley, and Dickens; his imprisonment for insulting the Prince of Wales; and his role in the creation of theater criticism. 25,000 first printing. A friend of Shelley's and a foil for Byron, Leigh Hunt was a poet, editor, and essayist whose most notable achievement was to foster talents greater than his own. In this engaging biography, Holden stresses Hunt's abilities as a networker, arguing that he gathered the "widest circle of acquaintance" in nineteenth-century English letters. Ten thousand supporters turned out at his trial for libelling the Prince Regent; after being convicted, he made his prison cell into a literary salon. Keats, whom Hunt liked to challenge to speed-sonnet-writing contests, dedicated his first volume of poetry to him, while Dickens made his childlike optimism the subject of a wounding caricature. Holden's account is rich in anecdotes about Romantic luminaries, but he seems uncertain about literary matters and makes no real attempt to appraise Hunt's output. Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker Leigh Hunt is remembered chiefly as the companion of greater writers: first Keats, Shelley, and Byron; then Tennyson, Carlyle, and Dickens. But with this long-overdue biography, Holden brings Hunt out of the shadows long enough to see his own remarkable gifts. Readers see, for instance, how Hunt's sharp eye for young talent enabled him to introduce Keats and Shelley to the public and to give timely encouragement to the still-struggling Tennyson and Rossetti. Holden also summarizes Hunt's accomplishments as a theater critic, personal essayist, and poet (his verse once won high praise from Byron and Keats). Still, Holden makes quite clear that Hunt's greatest cultural contributions were effected not in print but in hospitality, his rare capacity for friendship unifying a diverse circle of writers in spirited conversation. Often this animated conversation focused on the progressive political causes that Hunt advanced with a fervor that landed him in jail for crossing the Prince of Wales and that exposed him to conservatives' critical wrath. A vivid portrait of the British nineteenth-century literary world and one of its seminal figures. Bryce Christensen Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved