Originally John Hall, was born in Durham, England, in 1718. Was admitted as a fellow-commoner of Jesus College, Cambridge, in 1735, but left the university without a degree about 1738. He owes his chief fame to his connection with Sterne. He published a number of literary and political pamphlets of a rather coarse nature during his lifetime, and his collected works were issued in three volumes in 1795. His most important single work is “Crazy Tales,” which was reprinted privately in 1854.

Personal

  Hall-Stevenson’s sole aim in life was, he repeatedly declared, to amuse himself. He had no liking for field sports, and divided his energies at Skelton between literature and hospitality. He collected a library, largely consisting of facetiæ, and wrote with fatal fluency verse in imitation chiefly of La Fontaine, whose “Contes” attracted him by their obscenity. At the same time he gathered round him a crew of kindred spirits, drawn chiefly from the squirearchy and clergy of Yorkshire, whom he formed into “a club of demoniacks.” The members met under his roof at Skelton several times a year, and indulged by night in heavy drinking and obscene jesting…. Their orgies seem to have been pale reflections of those practised by Wilkes and his friends at Medmenham…. Hall-Stevenson’s relations with Sterne give his career its only genuine interest. Sterne introduces him into both “Tristram Shandy” and the “Sentimental Journey” under the name of Eugenius. He represented him as a prudent counsellor, and gratefully acknowledged the readiness with which Hall-Stevenson often put his purse at a friend’s service. Hall-Stevenson returned the compliment by flattering references to Sterne as “Cousin Shandy,” and often signed himself “Anthony Shandy.”

General

  I have met with no account of this writer’s life, nor have I been very anxious to seek for it, as a volume of poems, which bears his name, is disgraced by obscenity.

  Author of the witty and indecent collection entitled “Crazy Tales,” where there is a very humorous description of his ancient residence, under the name of Crazy Castle.

  The clever but licentious productions of John Hall Stevenson.

  We see nothing clever even in John Hall Stevenson himself.