{{Short description|English novelist, journalist and compiler of reference works}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}} '''Edward Kimber''' (1719–1769) was an English novelist, journalist and compiler of reference works.
==Life== He was son of Isaac Kimber;<ref name="DNB">{{cite DNB|wstitle=Kimber, Edward|volume=31}}</ref> and in early life apprentice to a bookseller, John Noon of Cheapside.<ref>{{cite book|author=Charles N. Baldwin|title=A Universal Biographical Dictionary|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v5UXAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA268|year=1842|publisher=Grigg & Elliot|page=268}}</ref> He made a living by compilation and editorial work for booksellers.<ref name="DNB"/>
Kimber spent the years 1742 to 1744 in British North America, and drew on his travels in subsequent writing.<ref>{{cite ODNB|id=15547|title=Kimber, Edward|first=Jeffrey|last=Herrie}}</ref> In 1745–6 he published a series of ''Itinerant Observations in America'' in ''The London Magazine'', at that point edited by his father.<ref>{{cite book|author=Kevin J. Hayes|title=The Oxford Handbook of Early American Literature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gH9Csi8cVWIC&pg=PA527|date=6 February 2008|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-518727-4|page=527}}</ref>
==Works== Kimber wrote:<ref name="DNB"/>
*''A Relation, or Journal, of a Late Expedition to the Gates of St. Augustine, on Florida'' (1744). Kimber had served in the militia of James Oglethorpe, and participated in a raid in 1743 that was a sequel to the 1740 siege of St. Augustine, Florida.<ref name="Kimber2008">{{cite book|author=Edward Kimber|title=The History of the Life and Adventures of Mr. Anderson|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WxOtaJaYlQsC&pg=PA35|date=13 November 2008|publisher=Broadview Press|isbn=978-1-55111-703-4|pages=35–6}}</ref> * ''The Life and Adventures of Joe Thompson, a Narrative founded on fact, written by himself'' [anon.], 2 vols., London, 1750; other editions, 1751, 1775, 1783. A French translation appeared in 1762. A "ramble novel", it sold well at the time, and was then condemned to neglect.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Catherine E. Ingrassia|author2=Jeffrey S. Ravel|title=Studies in Eighteenth-Century Culture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8iwX-kbPIVgC&pg=PA285|date=30 March 2005|publisher=JHU Press|isbn=978-0-8018-8192-3|page=285}}</ref> * ''The History of the Life and Adventures of Mr. Anderson'' (1754).<ref name="Kimber2008"/> A sentimental novel, it was based on a real-life narrative Kimber had heard in Georgia.<ref>{{cite book|author=Gary L. Ebersole|title=Captured by Texts: Puritan to Postmodern Images of Indian Captivity|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qDhkaIxzYxcC&pg=PA110|year=1995|publisher=University of Virginia Press|isbn=978-0-8139-1607-1|page=110}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Eve Tavor Bannet|title=Transatlantic Stories and the History of Reading, 1720-1810: Migrant Fictions|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HvkBboFFAj8C&pg=PA4|date=7 July 2011|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-139-49761-9|page=4}}</ref> Kimber denounced slavery, but is now found to be equivocal on the related issue, in the American context, of white supremacy.<ref>{{cite book|author=George Boulukos|title=The Grateful Slave: The Emergence of Race in Eighteenth-Century British and American Culture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b8CG_RS-5JsC&pg=PA126|date=10 April 2008|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-88571-3|page=126}}</ref> * ''The Life and Adventures of James Ramble'' (1754)<ref name="Kimber2008"/> * ''The Juvenile Adventures of David Ranger'' (1756)<ref name="Kimber2008"/> * ''The Life, Extraordinary Adventures, Voyages, and Surprizing Escapes of Capt. Neville Frowde, of Cork'' (1758)<ref name="Kimber2008"/> * ''The Happy Orphans'' (1759), translation from the French.<ref name="Kimber2008"/> The French original of 1754 was itself imitated from the ''Fortunate Foundlings'' of Eliza Haywood.<ref>{{cite book|author=Betty A. Schellenberg|title=The Professionalization of Women Writers in Eighteenth-Century Britain|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mIvHtw8Ttk8C&pg=PA128|date=10 June 2005|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-85060-5|page=128}}</ref> * ''Maria: The Genuine Memoirs of an Admired Lady of Rank and Fortune'' (1764)<ref name="Kimber2008"/> * ''The Generous Briton: or, the Authentic Memoirs of William Goldsmith'' (1765)<ref name="Kimber2008"/> * ''The Peerage of England'', London, 1766; 2nd edit. 1769. * ''The Peerage of Scotland'', London, 1767. * ''The Peerage of Ireland'', London, 1768. * ''The Extinct Peerage of England'', London, 1769.
He also wrote memoirs of his father, together with a poem to his memory, prefixed to Isaac Kimber's ''Sermons'', 1756. With Richard Johnson he edited and continued Thomas Wooton's ''Baronetage of England'', 3 vols., London, 1771.<ref name="DNB"/>
==Notes== {{reflist}}
;Attribution {{ DNB|wstitle=Kimber, Edward|volume=31}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kimber, Edward}} Category:1719 births Category:1769 deaths Category:18th-century English novelists Category:English male journalists Category:English genealogists Category:English male novelists Category:18th-century English male writers Category:18th-century British journalists