A man of eclectic interests, indefatigable energy, firm convictions, and notable integrity, "Citizen" John Thelwall personifies the explosive but creative collision of literature and politics, democratic urges, and cultural traditions that characterizes the 1790s. He pursued literary fame from an early age, won acclaim and suffered persecution as an orator and political leader, and finally achieved economic security in the profession of an elocutionist and speech therapist. While his political reputation has overshadowed his literary one, politics and literature are integrally related in his work, and it is in his insightful and original treatment of their interrelationship, most uniquely in The Peripatetic; or, Sketches of the Heart, of Nature and Society (1793), that his true value as a writer lies.

The youngest child of Joseph Thelwall, a silk mercer, John Thelwall was born on 27 July 1764 in London and received a normal, though to his mind narrow and oppressive, tradesman's...