SOURCE: Jones, Leonidas M. “The Champion—1816-1817.” In The Life of John Hamilton Reynolds, pp. 80-96. Hanover, Vt: University Press of New England, 1984.

In the following essay, Jones highlights Reynolds's years as a literary critic writing for Champion.

Before beginning an account of his friendship with Keats, it will be well to consider what Reynolds's prose in the Champion reveals about his reading, critical views, and intellect. When he joined the staff of the weekly newspaper in December 1815, he could read Latin and Italian, and he had taught himself a little Greek. His wide reading in English literature in the five years after he left St. Paul's School, done in the evenings after work between dinner and midnight, was systematic and thorough enough to prepare him to be an informed critic.

His knowledge of English literature began with Chaucer, whose most striking achievement, he believed, was vividness in...