William Makepeace Thackeray was a 19th century author who was born in India to British parents. He is best known for works such as The Luck of Barry Lyndon (1844) and Vanity Fair (1847-48). In 1975 Stanley Kubrick produced and directed the film Barry Lyndon, based on the novel by Thackeray. The setting for some of the scenes in the film was in Huntington Castle in Clonegal, County Carlow, Ireland. The film won four Academy Awards.
William Makepeace Thackeray was born in Calcutta, India on July 18th 1811. He was educated in England and contributed articles to university periodicals whilst a student at Trinity College Cambridge. He left University after a year and wrote for magazines and the Times newspaper. He married Irish woman Isabella Shawe and concentrated on writing as a career.
Apart from his novels Thackeray also travel books. One of those ‘The Irish Sketch Book’ describes his travels around Ireland during the 1840’s. He reported on the poverty in which Irish people lived prior to the famine. He also made observations on the sectarian divide in Irish society. His writings on Ireland in Punch magazine are often regarded as being responsible for the magazine’s hostile depiction of the Irish.
William Makepeace Thackeray who is best known as the author works such as The Luck of Barry Lyndon and Vanity Fair, died aged 52 in the year 1863 On This Day.
mage taken from page 10 of ‘The Works of William Makepeace Thackeray.