Author and publisher, was born in 1791, the son of a Windsor bookseller. In 1811 with his father he established the Windsor and Eton Express, and edited it until 1821, at the same time printing the Etonian. The Plain Englishman (1820–22), a first attempt to produce good cheap literature, was jointly edited by Charles Knight and Commissioner Locker of Greenwich Hospital. Removing to London in 1822, Knight began general publishing and founded Knight’s Quarterly Magazine. For the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge he published many works and serials, including the Penny Magazine (1832–45). The “Penny Cyclopædia” was begun in 1838, followed by the “English Cyclopædia” (1854–61), the “British Almanac,” and its “Companion.” He edited the “Pictorial Shakespeare,” and was the author of “William Shakespeare: a Biography” (1843). Other works were “The Land We Live In” (1848), “Once Upon a Time” (1853), and “Knowledge is Power” (1855). In 1862 he completed his “Popular History of England.” “Half-hours with the Best Authors,” “Half-hours of English History,” and “Half-hours with the Best Letter-writers” were compilations by him. Appointed in 1860 publisher of the London Gazette, he secured an income of £1,200. He died at Addlestone, Surrey, 9th March, 1873. See his “Passage of a Working Life” (1863–65), and “Life” by Alice Clowes (1892).
Personal
Looking back upon the August of 1812, at which time my working time really commenced, it occurred to me that there were passages of that working life of fifty years which might have an interest for a wider circle than that of my family and my immediate friends, if presented without the tedious egotism of a formal Auto-Biography. During that period my social position has not materially altered, and I have not had the advantage of seeing “life in many lands.” I have therefore no startling incidents to relate, and no great variety of scenes to describe. My occupation has been that of a publisher and a writer. But, in the course of my long connection with the Press (I use this word in its most extended meaning), I have been brought into communication with many eminent persons, and have been somewhat extensively mixed up with vast changes in the social condition of the people, in the progress of which elementary education and popular literature have been amongst the most efficient instruments of amelioration.
But although our purpose is to paint Charles Knight the publisher, yet it is impossible to look upon him as a publisher merely. He is emphatically a social reformer. He has always ends beyond those of literature itself. He walks in a patriotic sphere; and it is from this that his highest impulses are derived. His mind, as we have seen, was first directed to cheap literature of a sound and healthy nature in seeking a panacea to the discontent and disorganization which in his youth prevailed among the working classes, issuing in riots and sedition, and direct assaults upon the throne itself. And this patriotic idea did not lose, but gained force from being viewed in relation to religious wants. Importing into every subject an immediate human interest, he softens political differences, and almost unconsciously unites in the most permanent and effective manner the different classes of society, by awakening ideas round which common activities may center…. For himself, the writer is free to say that he is proud of being a follower in the footsteps of Charles Knight, and that he will be well pleased if he can help to carry on the work of his master, by supplying such literature as will not ignobly interest nor frivolously amuse, but convey the wisest instruction in the pleasantest manner, and supply it in such a form that it will find its way to tens of thousands of British homes, to be well thumbed and dog-eared by the children and the grown people, on the journey and at the fireside.
Full of years and of honours, Mr. Knight died at Addlestone, in Surrey, on the 9th of March, 1873, aged eighty-one; and five days afterwards was buried in the family vault at Windsor. The funeral was very large, from the number of literary men attending, who wished to show their feeling of affection and respect for the deceased. In the newspaper notices, too, the tribute of praise was unanimous and hearty; and it was resolved that the gratitude of writers and readers should not stop here. A committee has been formed to erect some kind of memorial, and many of the leading men of letters, as well as some of the leading publishers, are taking part in it. It has been hoped that this memorial may assume the shape of a free public library for London, and thus initiate a movement that, to our shame, has made such successful way in our great provincial towns. Nothing else could so appropriately perpetuate the memory of a life so earnest in its purpose of spreading cheap literature far and wide, so brave in difficulty, so utterly unmindful of self-gain in the work planned out and done; that none who knew its story can gainsay Douglas Jerrold’s most happy epitaph, “Good Knight.”
His singularly amiable character, which had amply merited for him Douglas Jerrold’s surname of “Good Knight,” endeared him to all with whom he was acquainted, and when he was laid in the grave it was felt that many years might come and go ere the publishing trade would be adorned by one so generous, so appreciative of merit, and so ready to sacrifice his private interest to the public weal.
Knight was a man of middle stature, with finely cut features, and a countenance indicative of his character, in which a sanguine temperament somewhat preponderated over accurate judgment. His schemes, though often sound in themselves, were apt to be carried into effect somewhat prematurely, and without sufficient regard to probable obstacles. Consequently after all his great publishing operations he remained a poor man. He was thoroughly honourable in business and considerate to his fellow-workers. His temper was quick, and when moved he could speak and write strongly; but he bore no ill-will, and seems never to have made an enemy. The often-quoted jest with which Jerrold took leave of him one evening after a social meeting—“Good Knight”—gives the measure of the estimate formed of him by his friends. In politics he was a liberal, and was one of the earliest members of the Reform Club. When M. D. Hill was candidate for Hull in the first reformed parliament, Knight worked for him. “Tell Mrs. Knight,” wrote Hill to his wife, “that her husband is one of the best speakers I ever heard.”
General
Having long ardently desired the appearance of a complete History of England, and the English—of the people as well as their kings—of the customs of the fire-side, as well as the intrigues of the court—we acknowledge with gratitude the accomplishment of our wish in the “Pictorial History of England” published by Charles Knight, one of the first literary benefactors of the age. This excellent work is arranged upon Henry’s plan, with advantages which neither Henry nor any one man could have secured.
Nothing has ever appeared superior, if anything has been published equal, to the account of the state of commerce, government, and society, at different periods.
The appearance of the “Penny Magazine” distinctly marks an era in our social history. Together with the “Penny Cyclopædia” to which it directly gave rise, it forms the first instalment of the Poor Man’s Library, to complete which so much has since been accomplished. Though this last was the least successful of Mr. Knight’s adventures in a pecuniary point of view, there can be no doubt that these two penny issues were by far the most fruitful of his works with regard to intellectual and moral results. The enterprises he had previously engaged in were to a considerable extent preliminary experiments to guide him, or buttresses to afford leverage in effectively applying this, his great idea.
While the work [“History”] is not profound, it is thoroughly healthful in tone; and, with the exception of Green, for the purposes of the general reader, is probably the best history of England yet completed.
He devoted himself to the spread of literature with an unselfish enterprise which merits the highest praise.
Charles Knight will ever be remembered with honour as the great pioneer in the cheapening of good literature. The excellence of his shilling volumes was a marvel when they were first published, and even now it would be difficult to find their equal. Knight had a great belief in the adequacy of the penny as a price for a number of a book. He published large quantities of books at a penny a number—as one of the first cheap periodicals—the “Penny Magazine,” and the first of cheap cyclopædias—the “Penny Cyclopædia.” How much good has been done by the large issues of such excellent books as Knight’s weekly and monthly volumes, the Libraries of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge, Constable’s Miscellany, Murray’s Family Library, Home and Colonial Library, and Bohn’s Libraries!
