William Henry Ainsworth

(Born: February 4, 1805 - Died: January 3, 1882)

English editor and novelist. Born and educated in Manchester, England. He lived much of his live in London, and died in Reigate, England. His career as an editor began in 1840, when he edited Bentley’s Miscellany in London. (In that same year, the magazine reprinted four of Poe’s tales from Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine, including “The Fall of the House of Usher.”) He subsequently founded his own journal, Ainsworth’s Magazine (1842-1853), and later edited the New Monthly Magazine. He was the author of 250 novels, of which the best known is Jack Shepard (1839).