HOOK, THEODORE EDWARD, a celebrated novelist and dramatic writer, was b. in London, Sept. 22, 1788, and educated at Harrow. In 1E05, at the age of 17, he pro duced all operatic farce called the Soldier's ,lieturn, which was very successful; and between that year and 1811, he wrote 12 other operatic pieces and farces, all of which were popular at the time. His ready wit, sparkling humor, and WoLderitil powers of improvisation, made him the delight of society; and having pleased the prince regeot by his feats of mimicry, he was appointed (1813) accountant-general artd treasurer of the Mauritius, a salary and allowances amounting to nearly 2:::2,000 a year. These offices he held till 1818, when the discovery of a considerable deficiency in the military chest caused him to lie arrested and sent to England, and his effects seized and sold. The peculation, it afterwards appeared, had been committed by his deputy, who destroyed himself. On obtaining his liberty. Hook supported himself by n thing lor the newspapers and magazines, and on the establishment of the Jobn Gull, weekly tory newspaper, in 1820, he was appointed its editor. Pi o»! his connection with this hold,
clever, and, at that time, virulent print, he derived, during its prosperous state, lolly 2,000 a year. In Aug , 1823, for his debt to the government, aniolinting to illaint £12,000, lie was arrested under an exchequer writ, and his properly sold. Ile remained within the rules of the king's bench till May, 1825. when 1w was released from custody. In 1824 appeared, in 3 vols. Svo, the first series of his Sayings a1(1 Doings, which yielded him £2,000. A second series followed in 1825, and a third in 1828, for each of n hich he received 1000 guineas. Several other three-volumed novels were published by him in rapid succession,. such as Maxwell, 1830; Love and Pride, 1833; Gibert Gunny, which contaics a sort of autobiography of himself. 1833; Jack Brag, 1837; Births, Deaths, and Marriages, 1839; Gurney Married, 1839: etc. He died Aug. 24, 1841.