Edmund Yates

Who was Edmund Yates?

Edmund Hodgson Yates was a British novelist and dramatist. He was born in Edinburgh to the actor and theatre manager Frederick Henry Yates and held an appointment for a period in the General Post Office as an adult. He worked as a journalist, mainly as a dramatic writer, and also wrote many dramatic pieces and some novels, including Running the Gauntlet and The Black Sheep.

Yates was perhaps best known as editor of The World society journal. He was also the author of and performed in Invitations at Egyptian Hall, London, which ran in 1862–1863. The work was a highly successful comedy in which he and Harold Littledale Power posed as hosts to a variety of singers and actors. Power also performed songs and imitations.

Edmund Yates wrote his autobiography titled Edmund Yates, His Recollections and Experiences, the first edition of which was published by Richard Bentley and Son in 1884. He was a friend of Charles Dickens, and in the 1850s, Yates lived at No. 43 Doughty Street, London, close to Dickens's former home at No. 48, which is now the Charles Dickens Museum.