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Smith (JAMES and HORACE authors)

JAMES and HORACE, authors of the "Rejected Addresses" and other excellent humorous compositions; born in London, James, Feb. 10, 1775; Horace, Dec. 31, 1779. The managers of the new Drury Lane Theater, completed in 1812 to replace the burned one, offered a prize for the most suitable opening address; the result was a deluge of such ludicrous rubbish that all had to be rejected, and Byron was commissioned to write one. The brothers Smith conceived the idea of burlesquing the style of leading poets and other men of letters and SMITH public notorieties, in a set of pieces purporting to be among the real addresses sent in to the committee but declined. but declined Hence the volume of "Rejected Ad- Addresses," which by 1819 had reached its 16th edition, and is a livingly familiar classic still. Its travesties are hardly caricatures so much as genuine reproductions of the spirit as well as manner of their subjects. Horace subsequently published many novels and poems, ms, the best known among them being the "Ode to an Egyptian Mummy." James was afterward a well-known diner-out, entertainer , and contributor to periodical literature in his day; his best-known pieces are "The Taking of Sebastopol" and "Surnames Go by Contraries." James died Dec. 26, 1839; Horace, July 12, 1849.