William Makepeace Thackeray

William Makepeace Thackeray, (1811-63). British novelist. After studying law, he began his career as a journalist for Punch and other periodicals. In 1840 his wife of four years became insane and he was left to care for their two daughters. Barry Lyndon (1844) was his first novel but the satirical Vanity Fair (1848) and Henry Esmond (1852) proved his greatest successes. He edited the Cornhill Magazine from 1860 but resigned in 1862 to concentrate on writing.