E. L. Blanchard
| Edward L. L. Blanchard | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
11 December 1820 London |
| Died | 4 September 1889 (aged 68) London |
| Nationality | British |
| Known for | Playwright |
Edward Litt Laman Blanchard, often referred to as E. L. Blanchard (11 December 1820 – 4 September 1889), was an English writer who is best known for his contributions to the Drury Lane pantomime. He began writing plays and other literature to support himself as a teenager after his father died. He soon became a prolific creator of dramas and eventually gained critical acclaim for his works. He also served as a newspaper drama critic and mentored other writers.
Edward Blanchard was born at 28 Great Queen Street, London, the second son of the actor William Blanchard. He was educated at Brixton, Ealing and Lichfield, and accompanied his father to New York in 1831. William died in 1835 when Edward was only 14 years old; Shortly afterwards, he dropped out of school and joined a travelling "oxyhydrogen microscope" exhibition, even giving the lectures to the public himself on occasions. However, it did not pay well and he was eventually left stranded in the west of England; fortunately he managed to borrow half a crown from a scene-painter he had met in Bristol, and walked back to London in 3 days.
In London, he embarked on a literary career. He soon started writing plays, and had written over 30 of them by the time that he turned 20. His initial plays were written under the pen name Francisco Frost. He was paid only £2 per play when he started writing, and wrote advertisements for businesses and comic songs for clowns to supplement his income.
Blanchard began contributing to Renton Nicholson's The Town at the age of 17. He began contributing articles to the paper shortly after it was launched in 1837 and continued writing for them for the next two years. He later described the articles that he wrote there as "social essays and dramatic notices". One of the first articles that he wrote for the paper described underground gambling in Leicester Square. The articles The Town published on the gambling there were later credited with causing the London police to suppress the gambling there. Years later, after Nicholson's death, Blanchard defended Nicholson against some of his critics, contending that he was a kind and generous man who produced much "clever and utterly unobjectionable" work.
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