Clement King Shorter (19 July 1857 – 19 November 1926) was aBritishjournalist andliterary critic. After editing theIllustrated London News, Shorter founded and editedSketch,The Sphere, andTatler.
Clement Shorter was born on 19 July 1857 inSouthwark, inLondon, the youngest of three boys.[1] The son of Richard and Elizabeth (née Clemenson) Shorter, young Clement attended school from 1863 to 1871 inDownham Market,Norfolk. He was still quite young when his father died inMelbourne, Australia, where he had gone in an attempt to make a better life for his young family.[2]
Once finished with his schooling, Shorter spent four years working for several booksellers and publishers onPaternoster Row in London. In 1877, he found himself working in theExchequer and Audit Department atSomerset House, as a low-level clerk.[2]
Shorter married twice, first toDora Sigerson, anIrish poet. He married her in 1896, and she died in 1918. In 1920, he remarried, to a woman fromPenzance, named Annie Doris Banfield. Survived by his wife and daughter, he died on 19 November 1926, at his home atGreat Missenden,Buckinghamshire.[2]
Shorter's career in journalism began in 1888, when he began working as a sub-editor for thePenny Illustrated Paper. At that time, he was also writing forThe Star, a weekly column about books. By 1890, he had resigned his clerical position at Somerset House, to focus solely on his journalistic endeavours.[2]
An important influence on the English pictorial press, in 1891 he became editor of theIllustrated London News. By 1893, he had founded and editedSketch. In 1900, he foundedSphere, which he edited up until his death in 1926.[3] During this time, Shorter maintained writing his controversial weekly column, "A Literary Letter." He described the content of the two papers he edited during this time (first,The Sphere, and shortly thereafter,The Tatler) as "on more frivolous lines."[2]
In addition to foundingSketch andThe Sphere, he was also the founder ofThe Tatler.[2]
Shorter was an avid collector, particularly of the works of theBrontë sisters. It led to some of his best-known works, including two aboutCharlotte Brontë, and two more about theBrontë family.[2] Shorter also editedElizabeth Gaskell'sThe Life of Charlotte Brontë in 1899.[2]
Shorter's works ofliterary criticism includeThe Brontës and their Circle (1896),Immortal Memories (1907),The Brontës: Life and Letters (1908), andGeorge Borrow and his Circle (1913).[3][4] He also wrote books aboutNapoleon, two aboutGeorge Borrow, and a volume of addresses and essays. His last published work wasC. K. S.: an Autobiography, which was edited byJohn Malcolm Bulloch, and publishedposthumously, in 1927.[2]
