Author. Born in Norwich and trained as a silk-weaver, he moved to London in 1586 and became the city's leading writer of topical ballads. Before the creation of the newspaper, these ballads, printed on single sheets and costing a penny each, were the principal sources of news for Londoners. In 1596 Deloney got in trouble with the London Privy Council for mentioning Queen Elizabeth (a forbidden subject) in a ballad; he then turned to fiction. His prose narratives "Jack of Newbury" (1597), "The Gentle Craft" (two parts, 1597 and 1600), and "Thomas of Reading" (1600) offer rare portraits of English middle-class life of the era, and come closest in style and form to the modern novel than anything else in Elizabethan literature. In April of 1600 a fellow writer noted that Deloney had died the previous month and had been "buried honestly" at St. Giles, Cripplegate. "The Gentle Craft" was the basis for Thomas Dekker's best known play, "The Shoemaker's Holiday" (1599).
Author. Born in Norwich and trained as a silk-weaver, he moved to London in 1586 and became the city's leading writer of topical ballads. Before the creation of the newspaper, these ballads, printed on single sheets and costing a penny each, were the principal sources of news for Londoners. In 1596 Deloney got in trouble with the London Privy Council for mentioning Queen Elizabeth (a forbidden subject) in a ballad; he then turned to fiction. His prose narratives "Jack of Newbury" (1597), "The Gentle Craft" (two parts, 1597 and 1600), and "Thomas of Reading" (1600) offer rare portraits of English middle-class life of the era, and come closest in style and form to the modern novel than anything else in Elizabethan literature. In April of 1600 a fellow writer noted that Deloney had died the previous month and had been "buried honestly" at St. Giles, Cripplegate. "The Gentle Craft" was the basis for Thomas Dekker's best known play, "The Shoemaker's Holiday" (1599).
Bio by: Bobb Edwards
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