"Literary Links" is a series of posts celebrating
Britain's wonderful links with great authors, dramatists and poets.
Jacob Tonson (1656-1736) is buried in this Ledbury graveyard.
His name is probably unfamiliar to you, but
he published the works of the literary greats of his time such as John Milton
(1608-1674), Joseph Addison (1672-1719),
Alexander Pope (1688-1744), Richard Steele
(1672-1729), Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), and John Dryden (1631-1700). He revived the works of Shakespeare and
published The Spectator.
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| Jacob Tonson |
John Milton's masterpiece, Paradise Lost, never brought
Milton much of a return during his life.
His political leanings made him a hot potato and publishers were
reluctant to invest in him. After his
death the monarchy and the political scene had shifted and Tonson, who now
owned all publishing rights to Milton's epic poem, was able to cash in making
him a small fortune.
He served as Secretary of the Kit-Kat Club which was both a
political and literary club in London.
Why Kit-Kat? The answer is
unclear, but one contemporary gave this reason:
"Whence
deathless Kit-Kat took his name
Few critics can
unriddle
Some say from pastrycook it came
And some from Cat and Fiddle.
From no trim beaus its name it boasts
Grey statesmen or green wits
But from the
pell-mell pack of toasts
Of old Cats and young Kits."
Tonson spent his working life in London, but he chose
Ledbury as his retirement place. Here he
spent the last sixteen years of his life and here he is buried.
This
is an excerpt from the tour Ledbury which explores this
medieval market town. The full tour is found on www.obelisktours.co.uk
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