Charles Wentworth Dilke (Dilke the Elder) - Definition

Charles Wentworth Dilke (1789 - 1864), critic and writer on literature, served for many years in the Navy Pay-Office, on retiring from which he devoted himself to literary pursuits. He had in 1814-16 made a continuation of Dodsley's Collection of English Plays, and in 1829 he became part proprietor and editor of The Athenaeum, the influence of which he greatly extended. In 1846 he resigned the editorship, and assumed that of The Daily News, but contributed to The Athenaeum his famous papers on Alexander Pope, Edmund Burke, Junius, etc., and shed much new light on his subjects. His grandson, Sir C.W. Dilke, published these writings in 1875 under the title, Papers of a Critic.

This article is originally from A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature.