Hunt, Leigh (1784-1859), was an English journalist, essayist, and poet. He was a supporter of such English Romantic poets as John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley when they were largely ignored or ridiculed. Hunt edited several periodicals, and much of his best work appeared as literary and informal essays in these publications. Only a few of Hunt’s poems are still read, notably “The Story of Rimini” (1816) and “Abou Ben Adhem” (1834). He described his friendships with major Romantic and early Victorian writers in his Autobiography (1850).
James Henry Leigh Hunt was born on Oct. 19, 1784, in Southgate, a London suburb. With his brother John, Hunt founded a liberal weekly newspaper called the Examiner in 1808. Hunt was imprisoned from 1813 to 1815 for his attacks on the future King George IV in the Examiner. Hunt died on Aug. 28, 1859.
