John Lang (writer)
Encyclopedia
John Lang was an Australia
n lawyer and was Australia's first native born novelist.
Lang was born at Parramatta
, Sydney
, Australia, second and posthumous son of Walter Lang, merchant adventurer, and his wife Elizabeth, née Harris. Lang was educated at Sydney College under William Timothy Cape
. Lang went to Cambridge in March 1837 and after qualifying as a barrister returned to Australia. In 1842 at a public meeting he seconded a motion proposed by William Wentworth
, that the Crown be petitioned to grant the colony a representative assembly. A few months later he went to India
and was successful as a barrister, taking on high-profile clients such as the Rani of Jhansi in her battles against the British East India Company
.
Lang became a journalist and in 1845 established a paper, the Mofussilite, at Meerut. He also wrote some novels which appeared serially in the Mofussilite and in Fraser's Magazine. These began to be published in book form in 1853, The Wetherbys and Too Clever by Half both 1853, followed by Too Much Alike (1854), The Forger's Wife (1855), Captain Macdonald (1856), Will He Marry Her (1858), The Ex-Wife (1858), My Friend's Wife (1859), The Secret Police (1859), and Botany Bay; or True Stories of the Early Days of Australia (1859). Some of these were very popular and were often reprinted, the twelfth edition of Too Clever by Half appearing in 1878. Botany Bay has been reprinted several times, sometimes under the titles of Clever Criminals, or Remarkable Convicts. Fisher's Ghost reprints 10 of the 13 stories of Botany Bay. Lang also published Geraldine, A Ballad in 1854, and in 1859 Wanderings in India and other Sketches reprinted from Household Words. Lang visited London in 1859, and was for a short time at Calcutta where he issued the Optimist. Lang died in the hill station
of Mussoorie
, India, and is buried in Camel's Back Cemetery, which enjoys a wide vista of the Lower Western Himalaya, which Lang loved greatly.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n lawyer and was Australia's first native born novelist.
Lang was born at Parramatta
Parramatta, New South Wales
Parramatta is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located in Greater Western Sydney west of the Sydney central business district on the banks of the Parramatta River. Parramatta is the administrative seat of the Local Government Area of the City of Parramatta...
, Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, Australia, second and posthumous son of Walter Lang, merchant adventurer, and his wife Elizabeth, née Harris. Lang was educated at Sydney College under William Timothy Cape
William Timothy Cape
William Timothy Cape was an early school master in Sydney, Australia; several of the Premiers of New South Wales attended his school....
. Lang went to Cambridge in March 1837 and after qualifying as a barrister returned to Australia. In 1842 at a public meeting he seconded a motion proposed by William Wentworth
William Wentworth
William Charles Wentworth was an Australian poet, explorer, journalist and politician, and one of the leading figures of early colonial New South Wales...
, that the Crown be petitioned to grant the colony a representative assembly. A few months later he went to India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and was successful as a barrister, taking on high-profile clients such as the Rani of Jhansi in her battles against the British East India Company
British East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
.
Lang became a journalist and in 1845 established a paper, the Mofussilite, at Meerut. He also wrote some novels which appeared serially in the Mofussilite and in Fraser's Magazine. These began to be published in book form in 1853, The Wetherbys and Too Clever by Half both 1853, followed by Too Much Alike (1854), The Forger's Wife (1855), Captain Macdonald (1856), Will He Marry Her (1858), The Ex-Wife (1858), My Friend's Wife (1859), The Secret Police (1859), and Botany Bay; or True Stories of the Early Days of Australia (1859). Some of these were very popular and were often reprinted, the twelfth edition of Too Clever by Half appearing in 1878. Botany Bay has been reprinted several times, sometimes under the titles of Clever Criminals, or Remarkable Convicts. Fisher's Ghost reprints 10 of the 13 stories of Botany Bay. Lang also published Geraldine, A Ballad in 1854, and in 1859 Wanderings in India and other Sketches reprinted from Household Words. Lang visited London in 1859, and was for a short time at Calcutta where he issued the Optimist. Lang died in the hill station
Hill station
A hill station is a town located at a higher elevation than the nearby plain or valley. The term was used mostly in colonial Asia , but also in Africa , for towns founded by European colonial rulers as refuges from the summer heat, up where temperatures are cooler...
of Mussoorie
Mussoorie
Mussoorie is a city and a municipal board in the Dehradun District of the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is located about 35 km from the state capital of Dehradun and 290 km north from the national capital of New Delhi...
, India, and is buried in Camel's Back Cemetery, which enjoys a wide vista of the Lower Western Himalaya, which Lang loved greatly.