author

Henry Waller

An elusive 18th-century pamphleteer, he is remembered through sharp political satire rather than a well-documented personal story. Surviving records tie his name to lively, combative works published as "Major Henry Waller" in the 1780s.

1 Audiobook

The Jesuits

The Jesuits

by Edward Hoare, Henry Waller

About the author

Very little firmly documented biographical information appears to survive about Henry Waller himself, so most of what can be said with confidence comes from his publications. Contemporary and library records identify him as Major Henry Waller, the author of satirical pamphlets printed in London in the mid-1780s.

The works most clearly linked to him include A Rump and Dozen; Being the Conclusion of a Letter to Thomas Lamb, Esq; Mayor of Rye from 1784 and The Dog's Monitor, a Satirical Poem from 1785. Those titles suggest a writer engaged with the public arguments and personalities of his day, using verse and pamphlet writing to poke, prod, and criticize.

Because the historical record is so thin, Waller stands out less as a fully known life story than as one of those voices preserved mainly through print. What remains is a glimpse of an energetic satirist whose work captures the argumentative spirit of late 18th-century political writing.