HOOK, THEODORE EDWARD English author, was born in London, spent a year at Harrow and subse quently matriculated at Oxford, though he never resided at the university. His father, James Hook (1746-1827), the composer of numerous popular songs, took great delight in exhibiting the boy's extraordinary musical and metrical gifts, and the precocious Theodore became "the little pet lion of the green room." At the age of 16, in conjunction with his father, he scored a dramatic success with The Soldier's Return, a comic opera, rapidly followed up by a series of over a dozen sparkling ventures, the instant popularity of which was hardly dependent on the inimitable act ing of John Liston and Charles Mathews. Hook gave up some ten of the best years of his life to the pleasures of the town, winning a foremost place in the world of fashion by his matchless powers of improvisation and mimicry, and startling the public by the audacity of his practical jokes. His unique gift of improvisation eventually charmed the prince regent into a declaration that "something must be done for Hook," and Hook was appointed ac countant-general and treasurer of the Mauritius with a salary of £2,000 a year. For five delightful years he was the life and soul of the island, but in 1817 he was arrested and brought to England on a criminal charge. A sum of about £ 12,000 had been abstracted by a deputy official, and for this amount Hook was held re sponsible.
During the tardy scrutiny of the audit board he lived obscurely and maintained himself by writing for magazines and newspapers. In 1820 he launched the newspaper John Bull, the champion of high Toryism and the virulent detractor of Queen Caroline. Witty, incisive criticism and pitiless invective secured it a large circula tion. He was arrested for the second time on account of his debt to the State, which he made no effort to defray. In a sponging house, where he was confined for two years, he wrote the nine volumes of stories afterwards collected under the title of Sayings and Doings (1826-29). In the remaining 23 years of his life he poured forth no fewer than 38 volumes, besides numberless ar ticles, squibs and sketches. The best of his many racy novels are Maxwell (1830), Love and Pride (1833), the autobiographic Gil bert Gurney (1836), Jack Brag (1837), Gurney Married (1838), and Peregrine Bunce (1842) . He died on Aug. 24, 1841.
See the Rev. R. H. D. Barham, Life and Remains of Hook (3rd ed., 1877) ; and an article by J. G. Lockhart in the Quarterly Review (May