Blanchard Jerrold

Blanchard Jerrold was a nineteenth-century English journalist, dramatist, and biographer who spent much of his career interpreting London and Paris for a general audience. He succeeded his father, Douglas Jerrold, as editor of Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper and collaborated with Gustave Doré on London: A Pilgrimage. The Life of George Cruikshank appeared in two volumes in the early 1880s and presents the illustrator’s career in two epochs. Jerrold follows Cruikshank from political caricature and book illustration through his later identification with temperance reform. The biography combines career history, personal recollection, anecdotes, and numerous examples of Cruikshank’s art. Its method is expansive rather than strictly chronological, which allows Jerrold to connect individual works with changes in publishing, satire, and social campaigning. The Life of George Cruikshank also reflects Jerrold’s own experience as an editor and observer of illustrated journalism, giving him a practical understanding of the professional world in which Cruikshank worked.