Politics, Literature, and Leigh Hunt’s Editorial Spirit in "The Liberal"

This essay is the first to investigates the crucial role that Leigh Hunt played in the establishment and publication of The Liberal: the controversial and short-lived literary journal that lasted for four issues between 1822 and 1823. Before embarking on his travel throughout Italy, Hunt had become extremely competent in navigating the editorial market, thanks to his successful editorship of The Examiner, The Reflector and The Indicator – some of the most famous periodicals of the time. After providing an overview of Hunt’s long-lasting editorial career – with specific reference to each of the periodicals that he edited and to which he contributed – I am discussing the pivotal and not yet investigated role as editor of The Liberal. Due to the exceptional genius at the origin of such an editorial project, it is particularly interesting to re-descover Leigh Hunt’s individual contributions to and responsibility for its brief success – as well as its cessation, together with the important political and ethical roles of literature are foregrounded in all of Hunt’s periodicals.