author
Richard Carlile
1790–1843
A fearless English radical publisher and writer, he became one of the loudest voices for a free press and wider political rights in early 19th-century Britain. Even repeated prison sentences did not stop him from printing and defending ideas that authorities wanted suppressed.
6 Audiobooks
A Letter to the Society for the Suppression of Vice, on Their Malignant Efforts to Prevent a Free Enquiry After Truth and Reason
by Richard Carlile
The Character of a Priest
by Richard Carlile
The Character of the Jew Books Being, a Defence of the Natural Innocence of Man, Against Kings and Priests or Tyrants and Impostors
by Richard Carlile
Life of Thomas Paine Written Purposely to Bind with His Writings
by Richard Carlile
About the author
Born in Ashburton, Devon, on 8 December 1790, Richard Carlile began working life as a tinman before becoming deeply involved in radical politics. He moved to London, absorbed the influence of Thomas Paine and other reformers, and turned to publishing as his way of fighting for change.
Carlile is best remembered as a champion of freedom of the press, free thought, and universal suffrage. After the Peterloo Massacre in 1819, he became especially prominent for publishing radical material that many booksellers were too afraid to handle. He was prosecuted and spent years in prison, yet he kept writing and publishing, and his family and supporters continued the work around him.
His career was marked by controversy, but also by unusual determination. More than simply a journalist, he helped push arguments about civil liberties, religious criticism, and political reform into public view at a time when doing so could carry a heavy personal cost. He died on 10 February 1843, but his name remains closely tied to the long struggle for free expression in Britain.