Albert Richard Smith
(1816-1860), Writer, public lecturer and mountaineerSitter in 15 portraits
Initially a surgeon, in the 1840s Smith became a popular journalist and humorist. He was an early contributor to Punch and a regular contributor to Richard Bentley's Miscellany, in whose pages his first and most successful book, The Adventures of Mr Ledbury, appeared in 1842. Smith became best known, however, for his entertaining lectures about his travels in the 1850s. In 1851 he climbed Mont Blanc. The following year Mr. Albert Smith's Ascent of Mont Blanc opened at the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, on a stage resembling a Swiss chalet. The show was a sensation; it ran for two thousand performances and helped to popularise mountain climbing in mid-Victorian Britain.
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