Author Information At the Circulating Library  Author: Walter
Thornbury (1828–1876)  Biography: George Walter Thornbury was
born in 1828, the son of the London solicitor George Thornbury.
As a youth, he aimed for the church, then studied painting
before turning to literature: at age sixteen he contributed
topographical and antiquarian articles to the Bristol Journal
and a few years later moved to London. Thornbury served as art
critic for the Athenaeum and went on to become a highly prolific
author of dozens of books and hundreds of articles and stories
for the leading periodicals of the day, including All the Year
Round, Bentley's Miscellany, Household Words, and Temple Bar. As
an art critic, he later wrote The Life of J.M. Turner, R.A.
(1862) under the supervision of John Ruskin. He travelled for a
time, visiting Turkey, Spain, Egypt, Palestine, and the United
States, and turned these experiences into article and travel
books. As a poet, he wrote mainly ballads and songs, his most
famous collection being So