Frederick Greenwood
| Frederick Greenwood | |
|---|---|
"He created The Pall Mall Gazette"
Greenwood as caricatured by Ape (Carlo Pellegrini) in Vanity Fair, June 1880 |
|
| Born | April 1830 |
| Died | 14 December 1909 (aged 79) Sydenham, London, England |
| Occupation | Journalist, editor |
Frederick Greenwood (25 March 1830 – 14 December 1909) was an English journalist, editor, and man of letters. He completed Elizabeth Gaskell's novel Wives and Daughters after her death in 1865.
Born in Kensington, London, he was the oldest of eleven children of James Caer Greenwood, a coach builder, and his wife, Mary Ann, née Fish. He and two brothers — James and Charles, gained reputations as journalists. Frederick started life in a printing house, but at an early age began to write in periodicals. In 1853 he contributed a sketch of Napoleon III to a volume called The Napoleon Dynasty (2nd ed., 1855). He also wrote several novels: The Loves of an Apothecary (1854), The Path of Roses (1859) and (with his brother James) Under a Cloud (1860).
To the second number of the Cornhill Magazine he contributed "An Essay without End," and this led to an introduction to Thackeray. In 1862, when Thackeray resigned the editorship of the Cornhill, Greenwood became joint editor with GH Lewes. In 1864 he was appointed sole editor, a post which he held until 1868. While at the Cornhill he wrote an article in which he suggested, to some extent, how Thackeray might have intended to conclude his unfinished work Denis Duval, and in its pages appeared Margaret Denzil's History, Greenwood's most ambitious work of fiction, published in volume form in 1864.
Frederick Greenwood completed Elizabeth Gaskell's unfinished novel Wives and Daughters after she died suddenly in 1865.
Greenwood conceived the idea of an evening newspaper, which, with news, should mainly contain original articles. Public affairs and culture were to be discussed by authoritative figures. He took the Anti-Jacobin and the Saturday Review of 1864 as models. The idea was taken up by George Smith, and the Pall Mall Gazette, named after Thackeray's fictional paper in Pendennis was launched in February 1865, with Greenwood as editor. Within a few years he became an influential Tory. "No minister in Great Britain," Mr Gladstone declared, "ever had a more able, a more zealous, a more effective supporter for his policy than Lord Beaconsfield had in Greenwood."
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