A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature/Dilke, Charles Wentworth
Dilke, Charles Wentworth (1789-1864).—Critic and writer on literature, served for many years in the Navy Pay-Office, on retiring from which he devoted himself to literary pursuits. He had in 1814–16 made a continuation of Dodsley's Collection of English Plays, and in 1829 he became part proprietor and ed. of The Athenæum, the influence of which he greatly extended. In 1846 he resigned the editorship, and assumed that of The Daily News, but contributed to The Athenæum his famous papers on Pope, Burke, Junius, etc., and shed much new light on his subjects. His grandson, the present Sir C. W. Dilke, pub. these writings in 1875 under the title, Papers of a Critic.