John Hawkesworth (book editor)

In 1744, Hawkesworth succeeded Samuel Johnson as compiler of the parliamentary debates for the Gentleman's Magazine, and from 1741 to 1749 he contributed poems signed Greville, or H Greville, to that journal. In company with Johnson and others he started a periodical called The Adventurer, which ran to 140 issues, of which 70 were from the pen of Hawkesworth himself.{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Hawkesworth, John|volume=13|pages=97–98}}

Because of his defence of morality and religion, Hawkesworth was rewarded by the Archbishop of Canterbury with the degree of LL.D, In 1754–1755 he published an edition (12 vols) of Swift's works, with a life prefixed that Johnson praised in his Lives of the Poets. A larger edition (27 vols) appeared in 1766–1779. He adapted Dryden's Amphitryon for the Drury Lane stage in 1756, and Southerne's Oronooko in 1759. He wrote the libretto of an oratorio Zimri in 1760, and the next year Edgar and Emmeline: a Fairy Tale was produced at Drury Lane. His Almoran and Hamet (1761) was first drafted as a play {{citation needed|date=July 2014}}, and a tragedy based on it by S J Pratt, The Fair Circassian (1781), met with some success.

He was commissioned by the Admiralty to edit Captain James Cook's papers relative to his first voyage. For this work, An Account of the Voyages undertaken ... for making discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere and performed by Commodore Byrone John Byron, Captain Wallis, Captain Carteret and Captain Cook (from 1702 to 1771) drawn up from the Journals ... (3 vols, 1773){{cite web|last1=Hawkesworth|first1=John|title=An Account of the Voyages Undertaken by the Order of His Present Majesty, For Making Discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere. Vol. I.|url=http://www.otago.ac.nz/library/exhibitions/charting-the-land-on-the-ocean/index.php#Wallis|website=Charting the Land on the Ocean Pacific Exploration, 1520–1876|publisher=University of Otago|access-date=3 June 2015}} Hawkesworth is said to have received from the publishers the sum of £6000, an unprecented amount at the time, and An Account would go on to become one of the most popular travel books of the eighteenth century.{{cite book |last1=Rogers |first1=Shef |title=The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain |date=2009 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=786–787 |chapter=Enlarging the Prospects of Happiness: Travel Reading and Travel Writing}} His descriptions of the manners and customs of the South Seas were, however, regarded by many critics as inexact and hurtful to the interests of morality, and the severity of their strictures is said to have hastened his death.{{cite news |last= Truss |first= Lynne | author-link= Lynne Truss |title= Point of view: 'The case of John Hawkesworth proves that a bad review can kill you' |url= https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jan/13/lynne-truss-bad-book-review-john-hawkesworth| date= 14 January 2017| newspaper= The Guardian (Review section) |location=London| page= 15| access-date= 17 January 2017 }} He was buried in the parish church at Bromley, Kent, where he and his wife had kept a school.

Hawkesworth was a close imitator of Johnson both in style and thought, and was at one time on very friendly terms with him. It is said that he presumed on his success, and lost Johnson's friendship as early as 1756.

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite journal | title=John Hawkesworth: Friend of Samuel Johnson and Editor of Captain Cook's Voyages and of the Gentleman's Magazine | author=John L. Abbott | journal=Eighteenth-Century Studies | volume=3 | number=3 | year=1970 | pages=339–350 | doi=10.2307/2737875| jstor=2737875 }}
• {{Citation

| last1=Hawkesworth | first1=John | author-link1=John Hawkesworth (book editor)

| last2=Byron | first2=John | author-link2=John Byron

| last3=Wallis | first3=Samuel | author-link3=Samuel Wallis

| last4=Carteret | first4=Philip | author-link4=Philip Carteret

| last5=Cook | first5=James | author-link5=James Cook

| last6=Banks | first6=Joseph | author-link6=Joseph Banks

| title=An account of the voyages undertaken by the order of His present Majesty for making discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere, and successively performed by Commodore Byron, Captain Wallis, Captain Carteret, and Captain Cook, in the Dolphin, the Swallow, and the Endeavour drawn up from the journals which were kept by the several commanders, and from the papers of Joseph Banks, esq

| date=1773

| publisher=London Printed for W. Strahan and T. Cadell

}}, [http://southseas.nla.gov.au/journals/hv01/contents.html Volume I], [http://southseas.nla.gov.au/journals/hv23/contents.html Volume II-III]

{{Wikiquote|John Hawkesworth (book editor)|John Hawkesworth}}

{{Commons category|John Hawkesworth (book editor)|John Hawkesworth}}

• [http://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/authors/pers00044.shtml John Hawkesworth] at the [http://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/ Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA)]
• {{Gutenberg author |id=5330| name=John Hawkesworth}}
• {{Internet Archive author |sname=John Hawkesworth |birth=1715 |death=1773}}
• [http://southseas.nla.gov.au/index_voyaging.html Account of the Voyages...in the Southern Hemisphere], by Hawkesworth, 1773, online at the National Library of Australia

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hawkesworth, John}}

Category:1710s births

Category:1773 deaths

Category:English book editors

Category:English male journalists

Category:English male non-fiction writers

Category:18th-century British journalists