Sketch by Daniel Maclise, c.1830s. Courtesy The Walter Scott Digital Archive, Edinburgh University Library.
Leigh Hunt is perhaps best known today for two short poems, “Jenny Kissed Me” and “Abou Ben Adhem”. In his time, he was known as a leading figure in the Romantic movement, a friend and mentor of Keats and Shelley, a groundbreaking drama critic, the editor of the leading liberal journal of the day (the Examiner), and a political writer whose criticisms of the Prince Regent led to his imprisonment for libel. He also became known in his later years as the subject of a hostile caricature in Charles Dickens’ novel Bleak House.
James Henry Leigh Hunt was born in Southgate near London, the son of Isaac Hunt, a lawyer turned preacher who lived in...
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Citation: Goldfarb, Sheldon. "Leigh Hunt". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 04 March 2011 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2264, accessed 05 December 2025.]
