Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)/Tupper, Martin Farquhar

TUPPER, MARTIN FARQUHAR, an English poet; born in London, England, July 17, 1810; was educated at the Charterhouse and under private tutors, and at 19 went to Christ Church, Oxford. A stammer hindered him from taking orders, so, after graduating in 1831, he entered Lincoln's Inn,, and in 1835 was called to the bar. But a single will and marriage settlement was his first and last exploit in the way of law. Of his various works, 40 in number, one “Proverbial Philosophy” (1838-1867), brought him and his publisher, Hatchards, a profit of “something like $50,000 apiece.” A friend “whose ambition it was to be Tupper's Boswell” predeceased him; but from his own huge “archives” he compiled “My Life as an Author” (1886)—a curious self-study of a poet. He died in Albury, his Surrey home, Nov. 29, 1889.