Richard Ryan (18 April 1797 – 20 October 1849)A letter written (above) records his correct date of birth, incorrectly listed elsewhere as 1796 (on his death certificate his age is listed as 53, but he was 52). Also listed correctly in Time's Telescope, 1825 p. 91. Birth date of 18 April 1797 is also registered on Baptism records with St George's Hanover Square, Westminster, 10 September 1802. was a British writer of Irish descent.His father Richard's obituary from The Gentleman's Magazine Mar 1819, p.286: "Mr. Richard Ryan was a native of Ireland..." He was the son of Oxford Street, London bookseller and publisher Richard Ryan and was educated at St Paul's School, London.
Ryan produced the first Irish biographical dictionary Biographia Hibernica, a Biographical Dictionary of the Worthies of Ireland, from the earliest periods to the present time in 1819 and 1821. He was also a poet, writing for newspapers and publishing books on poetry, a biographer of poets and playwrights, an editor, a lyricist for popular music and a playwright of several plays in the West End of London.
Richard Ryan lived in Camden Town, London, from 1819 until his death in 1849.
Early life
Richard Ryan was the son of bookseller Richard Ryan (1750–1818) and Elizabeth Ryan (1759–1830).Morning Post, 20 February 1830: DIED at her house in Park-street, Camden-town, Mrs Ryan, aged 71, widow of Mr. Ryan, bookseller, and mother of Richard Ryan, author of several works in prose and poetry. He was born at their home in Oxford Street near the Pantheon, London. It was one of several locations on Oxford Street where his father ran a book-selling business for 34 years, from 1784 to 1818. An 1840 street view of the buildings on Oxford Street (including the old numbering), can be seen online.
Richard was his father's only child, but he had three older half brothers: Isaac, Joshua and Aaron Bryant from his mother who was a widow living in Poland Street when she married his father in February 1796.Isaac, Joshua and Aaron Bryant are mentioned in the will of his mother Elizabeth. Joshua and Aaron worked in the Oxford Street bookshop: Joshua from 1797 and Aaron from 1799. Joshua Bryant (born c.1782) was an acclaimed artist and map engraver and exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts from 1798 onwards and also produced illustrations for books, including Buildings on the south side of New Palace Yard in Antiquities of Westminster by John Thomas Smith (engraver) (1807) of which R.Ryan's bookshop was listed as a main seller of the book.
Ryan attended Soho AcademyFor more about Soho Academy visit http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vols33-4/pp60-63 and St Paul's School. He initially worked as a bookseller with his father after leaving school but decided to close the bookshop in 1819, a year after his father died on 29 July 1818,The Gentleman's Magazine Oct 1818, p.375 and Mar 1819, p.286: Mr. Richard Ryan was a native of Ireland, and kept a bookseller's shop in Dublin, but quitted it for this country; and resided, for upward of 35 years, in Oxford-street, carrying on a respectable business in the sale of second-hand books. He was a man of some humour, scrupulously exact in his dealings, and much esteemed by all who knew him. to focus on his writing.
Many London booksellers in the early nineteenth century were book publishers. Richard's father had published extensive catalogues and books over the years and he must have assisted his father in the publication of these once he was old enough. In 1818 he published the third edition of An Essay on the Antiquities of the Irish Language by Charles Vallancey which had originally been published in 1772. He took the opportunity to add a catalogue section at the back of the book with more than 100 listings of Works relative to the History, Antiquities, and the Language of Ireland on sale in his bookshop.An Essay on the Antiquities of the Irish Language third edition, 1818, p. 115-122.
First Irish biographical dictionary Richard Ryan is known for his biographical books, the best-known being Biographia Hibernica, a Biographical Dictionary of the Worthies of Ireland, from the earliest periods to the present time, 2 vols. 8vo, London.Biographia Hibernica: A Biographical Dictionary of the Worthies of Ireland from the earliest period to the present time, written and compiled by Richard Ryan (London: John Warren; Dublin: M. N. Mahon, R. Milliken, and Hodges & M’Arthur) Volume One of the Worthies of Ireland was published in April 1819 and Volume Two in 1821. The two volumes list the biographies of 326 Irish people.A Compendium of Irish Biography by Alfred Webb, 1878 http://www.libraryireland.com/biography/RichardRyan.php
The Worthies of Ireland is regarded as the first general Irish biographical dictionary.C.j. Woods, "A guide to Irish biographical dictionaries" in The Maynooth Review / Revieu Mha Nuad Vol. 6, No. 1, May 1980 Irish poet and Nobel Prize in Literature winner Seamus Heaney mentioned Ryan's efforts at the launch of the Dictionary of Irish Biography in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 2009.There have been previous dictionaries of this nature, of course, such as the early 19th century account by Richard Ryan of 'the Worthies of Ireland' as he called them, and the one compiled by the Belfast born physician John Smith Crone in 1928, but none have attempted to be as exhaustive or extensive as the volumes now brought triumphantly to completion by our esteemed editors, Dr James McGuire and Dr James Quinn.
Poetry and drama
Following the success of his first literary effort, Ryan focused on publishing several books of poems and creating biographical dictionaries of his passions: Dramatic Table Talk about the theatre, followed by Poetry and Poets. He continued to write poetry on various subjects for newspapers including The Morning PostPoems in the Morning Post include Friendship, 22 August 1827 and The Pen and Sword, 17 November 1829 and The Lancaster Gazette.Lines, 23 July 1831 In November 1824 the Time's Telescope; The Astronomer's, Botanist's and Naturalist's Guide, for the year 1825 (8vo) featured a 62-page article on English Sacred Poetry by him.Time's Telescope 1825, p.p. xxxi – civ
Books written by Richard Ryan about poetry and the theatre included: Eight Ballads on the fictions of the ancient Irish and other poems, 8vo, London, 1822.Eight Ballads on the fictions of the ancient Irish and other poems (London: John Warren, 1822) Poems on sacred subjects. To which are added several miscellaneous, 12mo, London, 1824. Ryan dedicated this book to his friend Quaker poet Bernard Barton. Dramatic Table Talk, or Scenes, Situations, & adventures, serious & comic, in theatrical history & biography, 3 vols, 12mo, London, 1825. Reprinted 1830. Poetry and poets, being a collection of the choicest anecdotes relative to the poets of every age and nation; together with specimens of their works, and sketches of their biography, 3 vols. 12mo, London, 1826.
Published under an alias The Christian Religion; An Account of Every Sect, its Origin, Progress, Tenets of Belief, and Rites and Ceremonies, Carefully Compiled from the best Authorities, 12mo, London, 1840, reprinted 1843. This book was published under the initials R.R.This book is listed on application forms to the Literary Fund by Ryan held in the British Library.
As editor
It is not known if Ryan travelled further than Ireland, but he was editor of several books about expeditions to countries further afield, including Greece, Australia and New Zealand. In October 1824 he edited and wrote the preface to Greece in 1823 and 1824 by Hon. Colonel Leicester Stanhope, 5th Earl of Harrington which detailed Stanhope's correspondence with the Greek committee in England. Stanhope was with Lord Byron when he died in Greece that year and accompanied Byron's body back to England. Ryan was mentioned in The Morning Chronicle as being given documents relating to the book, by Stanhope. These included "several original letters" written by Byron to Stanhope, as well as some journals written by Stanhope.Morning Chronicle, 2 October 1824.
Books edited by Richard Ryan include:
Greece in 1823 and 1824, being a series of letters and other documents on the Greek Revolution, written during a visit to that country to which is added the life of Mustapha Ali , by Colonel Leicester Stanhope, London, 1824.More details about Byron and Greek independence as described in this book can be found here: http://www.johndruryrarebooks.com/product.php/3275/195/greece__in_1823_and_1824_ A narrative of a nine months' residence in New Zealand in 1827: together with a journal of a residence in Tristan D'Acunha, an island situated between South America and the Cape of Good Hope by Augustus Earle, London, 1832.Listed as work done by Richard Ryan when applying to the Literary Fund in 1845 and 1849; the editorial is unnamed in the book. Narrative of a Voyage Round the World, and description of British Settlements on the Coast of New Holland by Thomas Braidwood Wilson, London, 1835.Listed as work done by Richard Ryan when applying to the Literary Fund.
Plays
Ryan, whose wife Amelia was the daughter of local French-language publisher and bookshop owner Peter Didier,Her father Peter Didier was business partner with her grandfather William Tebbett and they ran a publishing house Didier and Tebbett, which published books in English, French and Italian for their bookshop in nearby St James's Street until 1810, when the Didier's moved to Vere Street off Oxford Street. was fluent in the French language. He translated and adaptedPreface to "Quite at Home": It has not lately fallen to our lot to read a funnier farce the "Quite at Home," which is adapted from the French piece "Monsieur Sens Gêne;" but Mr Ryan has paraphrased, not translated it; and Frank Easy, the hero, is an Englishman in his impudence from toe to toe. three plays from French to English in the 1830s, starting with Everybody's Husband which was adapted from "Le Mari de Toutes Les Femmes" in 1831.
His first play, in September 1830, was The Irish Girl. It did not get good reviews on its second run in 1831 and closed early.Declared utterly devoid of all merit as to composition or plot by the Theatrical Observer (12 July 1831), it closed after six performances.
Plays written by Ryan, and those translated and adapted from French by him, include: The Irish Girl. Performed at the Adelphi Theatre, by the English Opera Company, September 1830 and July 1831http://www.umass.edu/AdelphiTheatreCalendar/m31eohd.htm. Everybody's husband a farce in one act also known as Everybody's husband: A comic drama, in one act, London, 1831. Adapted from Le Mari de Toutes Les Femmes. Performed at the Queen's Theatre, Tottenham Street, February 1831. Quite at home: a comic entertainment in one act London, 1834.A History of Early Nineteenth Century Drama 1800–1850 by Allardyce Nicoll, Cambridge University Press, 1930, p 386: Quite at Home performed at the Strand, 8.12.34 Adapted from Monsieur Sens Gêne. Performed in the Theatre Royal, Haymarket.Listed as "As performed at the Theatres Royal" in the title page, published by John Cumberland, 1836. http://copac.ac.uk/search?title=Quite%20at%20home%20%3A%20a%20farce%2C%20in%20one%20act%3B%20adapted%20from%20the%20French&rn=1 Le pauvre Jacques a vaudeville in one act by Theodore Cogniard, translated from French by Richard Ryan, London, 1836. Performed by the French Company at the St. James's Theatre, July 1836.
Another play submitted to the Lord Chamberlain, London was Second sight: a tale of the Highlands in two acts, 1836. The original manuscript of this play is in the British Library. The Invisible Witness is another play listed as being written by Ryan on the title page of Quite at Home but it is unknown where it was performed.
Ryan wrote the "introductory remarks" to The tailors, (or 'quadrupeds,') a tragedy for warm weather, London, 1836. Performed at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket.
Lyrics