Richard Ryan (biographer)

Richard Ryan (18 April 1797 – 20 October 1849) was a British writer of Irish descent. He was the son of Oxford Street, London bookseller and publisher Richard Ryan and was educated at St Paul's School, London.

Ryan produced the first Irish biographical dictionary Biographia Hibernica, a Biographical Dictionary of the Worthies of Ireland, from the earliest periods to the present time in 1819 and 1821. He was also a poet, writing for newspapers and publishing books on poetry, a biographer of poets and playwrights, an editor, a lyricist for popular music and a playwright of several plays in the West End of London.

Richard Ryan lived in Camden Town, London, from 1819 until his death in 1849.

Richard Ryan was the son of bookseller Richard Ryan (1750–1818) and Elizabeth Ryan (1759–1830). He was born at their home in Oxford Street near the Pantheon, London. It was one of several locations on Oxford Street where his father ran a book-selling business for 34 years, from 1784 - 1818. An 1840 street view of the buildings on Oxford Street (including the old numbering), can be seen online.

Richard was his father's only child, but he had three older half brothers from his mother who was a widow living in Poland Street when she married his father in February 1796.

Ryan attended Soho Academy and St Paul's School. He initially worked as a bookseller with his father after leaving school but decided to close the bookshop in 1819, a year after his father died on 29 July 1818, to focus on his writing.

Many London booksellers in the early nineteenth century were book publishers. Richard's father had published extensive catalogues and books over the years and he must have assisted his father in the publication of these once he was old enough. In 1818 he published the third edition of An Essay on the Antiquities of the Irish Language by Charles Vallancey which had originally been published in 1772. He took the opportunity to add a catalogue section at the back of the book with more than 100 listings of Works relative to the History, Antiquities, and the Language of Ireland on sale in his bookshop.

Richard Ryan is known for his biographical books, the best-known being Biographia Hibernica, a Biographical Dictionary of the Worthies of Ireland, from the earliest periods to the present time, 2 vols. 8vo, London. Volume One of the Worthies of Ireland was published in April 1819 and Volume Two in 1821. The two volumes list the biographies of 326 Irish people.

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