... a clerk in a lawyers' office. Deciding to become a parliamentary reporter, he taught himself shorthand at night, while continuing to work in the office. In 1828, during his sixteenth year, he became a free-lance reporter at Doctor's Commons Courts. For several years he alternated reporting, exploring the London streets, and reading avidly in London's libraries. Already devoted to the ... essays of Joseph Addison, Oliver Goldsmith, and Samuel Jon, he now read the major nineteenth-century essayists: Leigh Hunt, William Hazlitt, Charles Lamb, Walter Savage Landor, and Thomas DeQuincey. At ...

• Word Count: 5240
• Approx Pages: 21
• Grade Level: High School