Editing Mark Lemon

{{Short description|English playwright and Editor of Punch}}
{{for|the speedway rider|Mark Lemon (speedway rider)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2015}}
{{Use British English|date=October 2015}}
{{More citations needed|date=December 2017}}
{{Infobox person
|honorific_prefix = 
|name = Mark Lemon
|honorific_suffix = 
|image=Mark Lemon - DPLA - e5ee35fa1cabd01b00dd3d2462f61162 (page 1).jpg
|caption = Lemon's carte de visite
|birth_name = 
|birth_date = {{Birth date|1809|11|30|df=y}}
|birth_place = London, England
|death_date = {{Death date and age|1870|5|23|1809|11|30|df=y}}
|death_place = [[Crawley]], West Sussex, England
|death_cause = 
|resting_place = [[St Margaret's Church, Ifield]]
|resting_place_coordinates = <!-- {{Coord|LAT|LONG|display=inline}} -->
|monuments = 
|nationality = 
|other_names = 
|education = 
|alma_mater = 
|occupation = 
|years_active = 
|employer = 
|organization = 
|known_for = Founding ''[[Punch (magazine)|Punch]]'' magazine
|notable_works = 
|style = 
|television = 
|spouse = 
|partner = 
|children = 
|parents = 
|relatives = 
|awards = 
}}
'''Mark Lemon''' (30 November 1809, in London &ndash; 23 May 1870, in [[Crawley]]) was the founding editor of both ''[[Punch (magazine)|Punch]]'' and ''[[The Field (magazine)|The Field]]''. He was also a writer of [[Play (theatre)|play]]s and verses.

==Biography==
[[File:Mark Lemon.jpg|thumb|From [[Marion Spielmann|M. H. Spielmann's]] ''The History of "Punch"'', 1895]]
Lemon was born in [[Marylebone]], [[Westminster]], [[Middlesex]], on 30 November 1809.{{sfn |Chisholm |1911 |p=413}} He was the son of Martin Lemon, a hop merchant, and Alice Collis. His parents married on 26 December 1808 at [[St Marylebone Parish Church|St Mary, Marylebone]], Westminster. His father died in [[Hendon]] in 1818, and between 1817 and 1823 Lemon lived at [[Church Farmhouse Museum|Church Farmhouse]], where a [[blue plaques|blue plaque]] commemorates him.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Commemorative Plaque for Mark Lemon at Church Farmhouse Museum |url=http://barnet.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s2520/Culture%20Commemorative%20Plaque%20for%20Mark%20Lemon.pdf |website=Blue Plaque Places |accessdate=1 December 2017}}</ref> 

Lemon was educated at [[Cheam School]], then in Surrey. This was then strictly for the sons of gentlemen only, and a boy had to leave when his father was found to be a tradesman, with a shop in London selling cutlery. It seems that the family background of young Lemon was not discovered.<ref name=AAA>Arthur A. Adrian, ''Mark Lemon: First Editor of 'Punch' '' (1966), p. 8</ref>

At the age of 15, Lemon was sent to live in [[Boston, Lincolnshire]], with his mother's brother Thomas Collis.

Lemon had a natural talent for journalism and the stage, and at 26 retired from less congenial business to devote himself to the writing of plays. More than sixty of his [[melodrama]]s, operettas and comedies were produced in London, whilst at the same time he was contributing to a wide variety of magazines and newspapers.{{sfn |Chisholm |1911 |p=413}}

He married Helen (Nelly) Romer, on 28 September 1839 in Kensington, London and had eight children – sons Mark, Frank and Henry, and daughters Alice, Betty, Helen, Mary and Kate. Frank died shortly after he was born. Betty married Sir [[Robert Romer]] and their son was [[Mark Romer, Baron Romer|Mark Lemon Romer]].

In 1841 Lemon and [[Henry Mayhew]] conceived the idea of a humorous weekly paper to be called ''[[Punch (magazine)|Punch]]'', and when the first number was issued, in July 1841, were joint editors and with the printer and engraver equal owners. The paper was for some time unsuccessful, Lemon keeping it alive out of the profits of his plays. On the sale of ''Punch'', Lemon became sole editor for the new proprietors. It remained under his control until his death, achieving remarkable popularity and influence.{{sfn |Chisholm |1911 |p=413}}

Two other long-running magazines in which Lemon played a significant part were the ''[[Illustrated London News]]'', the first publication to make use of pictures as well as text in reporting, which was founded by his friend [[Herbert Ingram]], and ''[[The Field (magazine)|The Field]]'', of which he was founder editor (1853–57).{{sfn |Chisholm |1911 |p=413}}

[[File:Mark Lemon grave.jpg|thumb|left|alt=Lemon's gravestone|Mark Lemon's grave, [[St Margaret's Church, Ifield]], West Sussex.]]
Lemon was an actor of ability, a pleasing lecturer and a successful impersonator of [[Shakespeare|Shakespearian]] characters. He played in the 1851 production of ''[[Not So Bad as We Seem, Or, Many Sides to a Character: A Comedy in Five Acts|Not So Bad As We Seem]]'', a play written by [[Edward Bulwer]] featuring many notable Victorians, including [[Charles Dickens]]. He also wrote novelettes and lyrics,<ref>Jarndyce [http://www.jarndyce.co.uk] ''XIX Century Fiction, Part II, L–Z'', 2021, Item 12: ''Prose & Verse'', 1852.</ref> over a hundred songs, a few [[three-volume novel]]s, several Christmas fairy tales and a volume of jests.{{sfn |Chisholm |1911 |p=413}} He was a stalwart of the London gentlemen's [[Savage Club]].

Lemon died in his adopted home town [[Crawley]], [[Sussex|West Sussex]] on 23 May 1870 and was buried in [[St Margaret's Church, Ifield]]. A [[blue plaque]] commemorates him outside [[The George Hotel, Crawley]].

His daughter, Mary Mark-Lemon, was a successful songwriter, noted for "Daddy", with music by [[Arthur Henry Behrend]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article193386907 |title=New Music |newspaper=[[The Age]] |issue=9161 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=28 June 1884 |access-date=18 November 2023 |page=11 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Works==
*The Boys of London - The Steam Boat Call Boy (1844) Published in The Illuminated Magazine pp.&nbsp;340–342

'''Attribution'''
*{{EB1911 |wstitle=Lemon, Mark |volume=16 |page=413}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
{{commons category}}
*{{wikisource author-inline}}
*{{Gutenberg author |id=9243|name=Mark Lemon}}
*{{Internet Archive author |sname=Mark Lemon}}
*{{Librivox author |id=10710}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20081205021158/http://www.countrylife.co.uk/thefield/index.php The Field magazine]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lemon, Mark}}
[[Category:1809 births]]
[[Category:1870 deaths]] 
[[Category:19th-century English dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:19th-century English male writers]]
[[Category:19th-century English journalists]]
[[Category:19th-century English businesspeople]]
[[Category:English magazine editors]]
[[Category:English male journalists]]
[[Category:British magazine founders]]
[[Category:English male dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:English male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:People educated at Cheam School]]
[[Category:People from Crawley]]
[[Category:People from Marylebone]]
[[Category:Punch (magazine) people]]
[[Category:Writers from the City of Westminster]]