BURNAND

burnand, sir francis cowley (1836- ), english humorist, was born in london on the 29th of november 1836. his father was a london stockbroker, of french-swiss origin; his mother emma cowley, a direct descendant of hannah cowley (1743-1809), the english poet and dramatist. he was educated at eton and cambridge, and originally studied first for the anglican, then for the roman catholic church; but eventually took to the law and was called to the bar. from his earliest days, however, the stage had attracted him--he founded the amateur dramatic club at cambridge,--and finally he abandoned the church and the law, first for the stage and subsequently for dramatic authorship. his first great dramatic success was made with the burlesque _black-eyed susan_, and he wrote a large number of other burlesques, comedies and farces. one of his early burlesques came under the favourable notice of mark lemon, then editor of _punch_, and burnand, who was already writing for the comic paper _fun_, became in 1862 a regular contributor to _punch_. in 1880 he was appointed editor of _punch_, and only retired from that position in 1906. in 1902 he was knighted. his literary reputation as a humorist depends, apart from his long association with _punch_, on his well-known book _happy thoughts_, originally published in _punch_ in 1863-1864 and frequently reprinted. see _recollections and reminiscences_, by sir f.c. burnand (london, 1904).