[Samuel Laman]. British author and journalist, the son of a painter and glazier; born at Great Yarmouth on the 15th of May. He was educated at St. Olave’s school, Southwark, and then became clerk to a proctor in Doctors’ Commons. At an early age he developed literary tastes, contributing dramatic sketches to a paper called Drama. For a short time he was a member of a travelling dramatic company, but subsequently became a proof-reader in London, and wrote for the Monthly Magazine. In 1827 he was made secretary of the Zoölogical Society, a post which he held for three years. In 1828 he published Lyric Offerings, dedicated to Charles Lamb. He had a very varied journalistic experience, editing in succession the Monthly Magazine, the True Sun, the Constitutional, the Court Journal, the Courier, and George Cruikshank’s Omnibus; and from 1841 till his death he was connected with the Examiner. In 1846 Bulwer-Lytton collected a number of his prose-essays under the title Sketches of Life, to which a memoir of the author was prefixed. His verse was collected in 1876 by Blanchard Jerrold. Over-work broke down his strength, and, unnerved by the death of his wife, he died by his own hand on the 15th of February 1845. See also “Creativeness of a Loving Eye,” etc.; Literary Criticism.
