Mark Lemon

Born in London on November 30, 1809, Mark Lemon became a well-known English man of letters in the Victorian period. He is most closely associated with Punch, which he helped launch in 1841 and guided as its founding editor, giving the magazine much of its early character and popularity.

Lemon did far more than edit. He wrote plays, journalism, poems, and fiction, and he was also connected with The Field, another important periodical of the time. His work moved easily between the stage and the press, which helps explain the energy and wit readers found in his writing.

He died on May 23, 1870, in Crawley, Sussex. Today he is remembered less as a single-book author than as a central figure in Victorian literary and magazine culture, especially for helping make comic and satirical writing a major part of popular reading.