Camden Pelham

Camden Pelham is remembered chiefly as the author of The Chronicles of Crime; or, The New Newgate Calendar, a substantial 1841 collection of memoirs, anecdotes, and criminal cases from British history. The book was widely circulated and is the work most consistently linked to his name in major library records.

Reliable biographical information about Pelham himself appears to be scarce in readily available sources. Based on the sources located, it is safest to describe him as a 19th-century British writer and compiler whose reputation rests mainly on that influential crime chronicle.

For listeners drawn to early true crime, Pelham’s appeal lies in the mix of historical storytelling, moral drama, and period detail that shaped popular crime writing in the Victorian era.