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English critic, essayist and poet (1784–1859)
the 19th century English poet and essayist

James Henry Leigh Hunt (19 October 178428 August 1859), best known as Leigh Hunt, was an English critic, essayist and poet. Hunt co founded The Examiner, a leading intellectual journal expounding radical principles. He was the centre of the Hampstead based group that included William Hazlitt and Charles Lamb, known as the "Hunt circle". Hunt also introduced John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Robert Browning and Alfred Tennyson to the public. Hunt's presence at Shelley's funeral on the beach near Viareggio was immortalised in the painting by Louis Édouard Fournier. Hunt inspired aspects of the Harold Skimpole character in Charles Dickens' novel Bleak House.

James Henry Leigh Hunt was born 19 October 1784, at Southgate, London, where his parents had settled after leaving the United States. His father, Isaac, a lawyer from Philadelphia, and his mother, Mary Shewell, a merchant's daughter and a devout Quaker, had been forced to come to Britain because of their Loyalist sympathies during the American War of Independence. Once in England, Isaac Hunt became a popular preacher but was unsuccessful in obtaining a permanent living. He was then employed by James Brydges, 3rd Duke of Chandos, as tutor to his nephew, James Henry Leigh for whom Isaac named his son.

Leigh Hunt was educated at Christ's Hospital in London from 1791 to 1799, a period that Hunt described in his autobiography. Thomas Barnes was a school friend. One of the boarding houses at Christ's Hospital is named after Hunt. As a boy, Hunt was an admirer of Thomas Gray and William Collins, writing many verses in imitation of them. A speech impediment, later cured, prevented Hunt from going to university. "For some time after I left school," he says, "I did nothing but visit my school fellows, haunt the book stalls and write verses." Hunt's first poems were published in 1801 under the title of Juvenilia, introducing him into British literary and theatrical society. He began to write for the newspapers and published in 1807 a volume of theatre criticism, and a series of Classic Tales with critical essays on the authors. Hunt's early essays were published by Edward Quin, editor and owner of The Traveller.

In 1809, Leigh Hunt married Marianne Kent, whose parents were Thomas and Ann. Over the next 20 years, the couple had ten children: Thornton Leigh (1810–73), John Horatio Leigh (1812–46), Mary Florimel Leigh (1813–49), Swinburne Percy Leigh (1816–27), Percy Bysshe Shelley Leigh (1817–99), Henry Sylvan Leigh (1819–76), Vincent Leigh (1823–52), Julia Trelawney Leigh (1826–72), Jacyntha Leigh (1828–1914), and Arabella Leigh (1829–30). Marianne Hunt, in poor health for most of her life, died on 26 January 1857, at the age of 69. Leigh Hunt made little mention of his family in his autobiography. Marianne's sister, Elizabeth Kent (Hunt's sister in law), became his amanuensis.

In 1808, Hunt left the War Office, where he had been working as a clerk, to become editor of The Examiner, a newspaper founded by his brother, John Hunt. His brother Robert Hunt contributed to its columns. Robert Hunt's criticism earned the enmity of William Blake, who described the office of The Examiner as containing a "nest of villains". Blake's response also included Leigh Hunt, who had published several vitriolic reviews in 1808 and 1809 and had added Blake's name to a list of so called "quacks". The Examiner soon acquired a reputation for unusual political independence; it would attack any worthy target "from a principle of taste," as John Keats expressed it. In 1813 (or 1812), The Examiner attacked Prince Regent George, describing his physique as "corpulent"; the British government tried the three Hunt brothers and sentenced them to two years in prison. Leigh Hunt served his term at the Surrey County Gaol. Leigh Hunt's visitors at Surrey County Gaol included Lord Byron, Thomas Moore, Lord Henry Brougham, and Charles Lamb. The stoicism with which Leigh Hunt bore his imprisonment attracted general attention and sympathy. His imprisonment allowed him many luxuries and access to friends and family, and Lamb described his decorations of the cell as something not found outside a fairy tale. When Jeremy Bentham called on him, he found Hunt playing battledore.

From 1810 to 1812, Leigh Hunt edited a quarterly magazine, The Reflector, for his brother John. He wrote "The Feast of the Poets" for publication. His work was a satire that offended many contemporary poets, particularly William Gifford.

From 1819 to 1821, Hunt edited The Indicator, a weekly literary periodical that was published by Joseph Appleyard. Hunt probably wrote much of the content, which included reviews, essays, stories and poems.

From January to July 1828, Hunt edited The Companion, a weekly literary periodical that was published by Hunt and Clarke. The journal dealt with books, theatrical productions and miscellaneous topics.

In 1844 Mary Shelley and her son, on succeeding to the family estates, settled an annuity of £120 upon Hunt (Rossetti 1890). In 1847 Lord John Russell set up a pension of £200 for Hunt. With his finances in better shape, Hunt published the companion books Imagination and Fancy (1844) and Wit and Humour (1846). These were two volumes of selections from English poets, which displayed his refined, discriminating critical tastes. Hunt also published a book on the pastoral poetry of Sicily, A Jar of Honey from Mount Hybla (1848). The Town (2 vols., 1848) and Men, Women and Books (2 vols., 1847) are partly made up from former material. The Old Court Suburb (2 vols., 1855; ed. A Dobson, 2002) is a sketch of Kensington, where Hunt long resided. In 1850 Hunt published his Autobiography (3 vols.). It has been described as a naive and affected, but accurate, piece of self portraiture. Hunt published A Book for a Corner (2 vols.) in 1849 and Table Talk appeared in 1851. In 1855, he published his narrative poems, both original and translated, under the title Stories in Verse. Hunt died in Putney in London on 28 August 1859. He was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery. In September 1966, Christ's Hospital named one of its houses in the memory of Hunt. Today, a residential street in his birthplace of Southgate is named Leigh Hunt Drive in his honour.

In a letter of 25 September 1853, Charles Dickens stated that Hunt had inspired the character of Harold Skimpole in Bleak House; "I suppose he is the most exact portrait that was ever painted in words! It is an absolute reproduction of a real man". A contemporary critic commented, "I recognized Skimpole instantaneously; and so did every person whom I talked with about it who had ever had Leigh Hunt's acquaintance." G. K. Chesterton suggested that Dickens "May never once have had the unfriendly thought, 'Suppose Hunt behaved like a rascal! '; he may have only had the fanciful thought, 'Suppose a rascal behaved like Hunt!'" (Chesterton 1906).