ABSTRACT
Thomas Noon Talfourd (1795–1854) came from a dissenting background and did not attend university. He began legal training in 1813 but combined it for many years with work as a literary journalist, first with ‘The Pamphleteer’ and later the New Monthly Magazine. This brought him into contact with Charles Lamb and, via him, with Wordsworth and then Coleridge. Lamb, with his usual charm, introduced Talfourd to Wordsworth as ‘my one admirer’. Though Talfourd quickly became a devoted admirer of Wordsworth as well, the admiration and affection for Lamb were unfeigned and enduring. The Letters of Charles Lamb, with a Sketch of his Life and the Final Memorials of Charles Lamb; Consisting Chiefly of his Letters not before Published, with Sketches of some of his Companions are animated by great tenderness for him and approach the difficult areas of Lamb’s life with delicacy and tact.
