Edwin Brett

Edwin Brett was born in White Horse Lane, Canterbury, the son of Thomas Brett (c.1777–1867), an army officer, and his wife, Mary. At fourteen he was apprenticed to a local watchmaker, but soon moved to London, where he was employed as an artist-engraver and joined a radical Chartist circle that included Feargus O'Connor, Charles Cochrane, George William MacArthur Reynolds and George Augustus Sala, the latter two becoming lifelong friends. ==Career==

Brett entered into an informal partnership with Ebenezer Landells (1808-1860), the Newcastle artist engraver, small publisher and one of the moving forces behind the satirical magazine Punch. which folded the following year. Later that year he signed the adventure novelist Captain Thomas Mayne Reid as a regular contributor following his bankruptcy. In 1868 Brett targeted a slightly older readership with Young Men of Great Britain, a 'healthy, moral, instructive and amusing companion for every age', which lasted four years. In the 1870s Brett expanded into popular romantic fiction with titles such as Wedding Bells (1870–79), Something to Read (1881–99), ''English Ladies' Novelettes (1891–2) and Princesses' Novelettes'' (1893-1904). ==Personal life==

On 4 January 1849 he married Eliza (1832–1893), daughter of Henry Archer, a Clerkenwell butcher and they divided their time between two residences, Burleigh House, at 342 Camden Road, and Oaklands, on the Isle of Thanet. Financial success allowed him to indulge his passion for arms and armour, and over thirty years he acquired nearly a thousand items of militaria. Following the death of his wife on 30 May 1893, he devoted his time to his collection, publishing a lavishly illustrated catalogue in 1894 entitled Ancient Arms and Armour, collected and described by Edwin J Brett, which formed the basis of the Christie's catalogue when he sold most of the collection at auction on 18 March 1895 for £11,773. After a long illness Brett died at Burleigh House on 15 December 1895, leaving an estate worth £76,538 to his nine children. The majority of his publishing empire was left to his eldest sons, Edwin Charles and Edgar Percy, who continued to manage its titles until the business collapsed in 1909. Brett was buried in the family vault in Highgate cemetery on 19 December 1895. ==References==