{{Use British English|date=February 2021}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2021}} {{Short description|Scottish-born poet and critic}} '''Thomas Kibble Hervey''' (4 February 1799 – 27 February 1859) was a Scottish-born poet and critic. He rose to be the Editor of the ''Athenaeum'', a leading British literary magazine in the 19th century.
==Youth== Thomas Kibble Hervey was born in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland, and brought up in Manchester, England, from 1802 or 1803, where he was educated at Manchester Grammar School. He entered Caius College, Cambridge in 1822, but migrated to Trinity College the following year. He was articled to a firm of Manchester solicitors and studied for the bar, but was not called.<ref>{{acad |id=HRVY822TK |name=Hervey, Thomas Kibble}}</ref>
==Literary work== While at Cambridge he began a lengthy career as a leading contributor to the ''Athenaeum'' in 1828, and published ''Australia, a Poem'' (1824) and ''Prometheus'' (1832). He later edited ''Friendship's Offering'' (1826–1827) and ''The Amaranth'' (1839), contributed to annuals, and edited the ''Athenaeum'' (23 May 1846 – December 1853).<ref>An assessment of the significance of Hervey's column "Poetry for the Million" appears in ''The Oxford Handbook of Victorian Poetry'', ed. Matthew Bevis, [https://books.google.com/books?id=GYCsAQAAQBAJ&dq=Thomas+Kibble+Hervey&pg=PT1355 Retrieved 10 December 2016.]</ref> His other works included ''The Poetical Sketch Book'' (1829), ''The Autobiography of Jack Ketch'',<ref>Available as a free ebook [https://books.google.com/books?id=PAsQmpiY-kkC&dq=Thomas+Kibble+Hervey&pg=PP1 Retrieved 10 December 2016.]</ref> ''The Book of Christmas'' (1836, reprinted as late as 1888 and illustrated by Robert Seymour)<ref>Online Books Page [http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Hervey%2C%20Thomas%20Kibble%2C%201799-1859 Retrieved 10 December 2016.]</ref><ref>British Library description with sample illustrations [https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/herveys-the-book-of-christmas Retrieved 10 December 2016.]</ref> and ''English Helicon'' (1841).
==Marriage and death== On 17 October 1843, Hervey married Eleanora Louisa Montagu (1811–1903), a playwright, author and poet, who was the daughter of George Conway Montagu of Lackham, Wiltshire. The couple had a son, Frederick Robert James.
Hervey died in Haverstock Hill, London, England in 1859 and was buried on the western side of Highgate Cemetery. His grave (no.9443) no longer has a headstone or marker.
An obituary in the ''Gentlemen's Magazine'' criticized his work as a reviewer, saying it was "characterized by a causticity of censure and a costiveness of praise, scarcely worthy of a journal of high standing."<ref>Quoted in P. D. Edwards: "Hervey, Thomas Kibble (1799–1859)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (Oxford, UK: OUP, 2004) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/13120 Retrieved 10 December 2016. Pay-walled.]</ref> ''The Poems of T. K. Hervey'' was edited by his wife with a memoir (1866).<ref>The text of the nine-page memoir appears here: [http://spenserians.cath.vt.edu/BiographyRecord.php?action=GET&bioid=36582 Retrieved 10 December 2016.]</ref>
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==External links== {{wikiquote}} *[http://198.82.142.160/spenser/BiographyRecord.php?action=GET&bioid=4470 Thomas Kibble Hervey (Frederic Boase, Modern English Biography (1892–1921) 1:1451)]. *[http://www.orgs.muohio.edu/anthologies/bijou/cangany/Hervey/about.html Biography of T. K. Hervey in The Real Romantics: 1799–1830] *{{Gutenberg author | id=41784}} *{{Internet Archive author |sname=Thomas Kibble Hervey |sopt=t}} *Archival material at {{wikidata|qualifier|property|P485|P856|format=\[%q %p\]}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hervey, Thomas Kibble}} Category:1799 births Category:1859 deaths Category:Burials at Highgate Cemetery Category:19th-century English male writers Category:19th-century English poets Category:English male poets Category:Poets from Paisley, Renfrewshire Category:People educated at Manchester Grammar School