William Kenrick

Contributions

1. A Treatise on Religious Toleration. Occasioned by the execution of the unfortunate John Calas, unjustly condemned and broken upon the wheel at Toulouse, for the supposed murder of his own son: Translated from the French… by the translator of Eloisa, etc. translation translator
2. A treatise on the social compact, or, The principles of political law translation has other edition translator
3. A treatise on the social compact, or, The principles of political law translation translator
4. Emilius and Sophia, or, a New system of education: Translated from the French of J.J. Rousseau, Citizen of Geneva. By the translator of Eloisa translation has paratext has other edition translator
5. Emilius and Sophia, or, a New system of education: Translated from the French of J.J. Rousseau, Citizen of Geneva. By the translator of Eloisa translation paratext has other edition translator
6. On society. From Roussau's treatise on the social compact translation translator
7. The following remarkable passage is taken out of Rosseau’s English edition of Emilius and Sophia, or New system of education, published so long since as the year 1779, vol. 2 page 74 translation has paratext translator

Knows

• Oliver Goldsmith historian novelist poet writer

Notes

William Kenrick, the son of a Baptist staymaker, was apprenticed to a mathematical instrument maker, before abandoning his training in favour of a literary career in 1748. from his earliest engagements with his literary contemporaries he relished controversy and always sought to have the last word. His career typified the life of a professional Grub Street writer, working at various times as a poet, critic, translator and dramatist. His boundless energy and broad learning were only matched by his arrogance and fierce temper.

He initially found some success as a journalist, before breaking onto the scene with a courtesy book written in the persona of a reformed woman, 'The Whole Duty of a Woman; or a Guide to the Female Sex, from the Age of Sixteen to Sixty etc.' (1753), which went through over five editions. Its success came despite being described by one commentator as, "one of London's most despised, drunken, and morally degenerate hack writers in the later eighteenth century". He travelled abroad between 1753-56, where he learnt to master French and German and may have studied at Leiden in the Netherlands.

In 1759, Kenrick, despite a reputation for biting, satirical reviews, which often verged on libel, succeeded Oliver Goldsmith as editor of the prestigious 'Monthly Review', a journal published by Ralph Griffiths and sold in London by Becket & de Hondt. Imprisoned in the King's Bench from 1759-61 for defamation and immersed in foreign literature, he took up translation work to supplement his income, beginning with Jean-Jacques Rousseau's 'Julie, ou La Nouvelle Héloïse' (1760) as 'Eloisa' (1761) for Griffiths, Becket & de Hondt. It was well received enough for them to go on to commission him to translate virtually all Rousseau's other works, in 14 volumes, by 1767. Kenrick also translated Voltaire's 'Treatise on Religious Toleration' (1764).

As Kenrick's ONDB entry indicates, "these translations represented the zenith of Kenrick's intellectual reputation", so that, by 1771, his name could be found on the title-page of a translation of Abbé Millot's 'Elements of the History of England' (1771), even though he had only contributed half the translation. He went on to co-translate Buffon's important 'A Natural History of Animals, Vegetables, and Minerals' (1775), and by the time of his death in 1779, was the editor for a 14-volume translation of Voltaire's works (1779-81).

In 1775, Kenrick founded the monthly, book-review digest, 'The London Review of English and Foreign Literature' (1775–80), which attacked many contemporary writers, as well as regularly dishing out poor reviews to the Covent Garden and Drury Lane theatres. To quote his own epitaph, "The Wits who drink water and suck sugar-candy/Impute the strong spirit of Kenrick to brandy/They are not so much out: the matter, in short, is/He sips aqua vitae and spits aqua fortis."

See the entry in ONDB by CS Rogers and Betty Rizo (2004).