Thomas Hood

Thomas Hood was an English poet, editor and humorist, born in London on 23 May 1799 and dead there on 3 May 1845, best remembered now for The Song of the Shirt and The Bridge of Sighs. He was a regular contributor to The Athenaeum, and his 1837 letters to its editor under the title “Copyright and Copywrong” argued the writer’s case in the copyright fight of the day. He is the first person known to have set this maxim in print — though he framed it as a saying he was repeating, not one he had coined.