John Aikin

1747-1822. English doctor and writer, "now better known as a literary figure than as a physician" (Brooks).

Son of a Unitarian theologian. Pupil at Warrington Academy, a school for the children of dissenters. Apprentice of a surgeon and an apothecary, then medical student at Edinburgh University. Aikin left without a degree, continuing his surgical training in Manchester and London. After setting up surgical practices he found the business to be unprofitable, he resumed his medical studies in Leiden and and returned to England to work as a doctor.

Aikin's advocacy of a repeal of the Test Acts - he propagated liberty of conscience and found the lasting discrimination against dissenters unjust - gave offence and severely damaged his professional standing. Aikin, however, was already following his passion for literature.

Aikin's literary production comprises bibliographical writing, especially the ten-volume General Biography and the Annals of the Reign of George III, as well as Evenings at Home, an early example of children's literature. Furthermore, from 1796 to 1807, Aikin was editor on The Monthly Magazine.

Reference

• Brooks, Marilyn L. "Aikin, John (1747–1822)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2004.