CAVE, Edward, a celebrated printer, born in 1691. He was placed by his father, who was a shoemaker at Rugby, at the free school of that place, which was then in high reputation, but he was soon after withdrawn and appointed clerk to a collector of the excise.
The drudgery and insolence to which he was subjected quickly disgusted him, and after having been engaged for some time by a timber-merchant in London, he was finally bound apprentice in the printing-office of Mr Collins. In two years he attained so much skill in his art, that he was sent to conduct a printing-house at Norwich, and publish a weekly paper. In this undertaking he met with some opposition, which produced a public controversy, and procured young Cave the reputation of a writer. On the death of his master he married, and eked out the emoluments of a small place in the post-office by occasional contributions to the periodical literature. He held for a short time the office of clerk of the franks, but his rigour in checking abuses soon produced his dismissal. He now embarked the capital which he had acquired in the publication of the Gentleman's Magazine, a periodical which procured a fortune for the projector, and survived almost all its competitors.
Cave now began to aspire to popularity as a patron of poets, to whom he proposed subjects and offered prizes. His parsimony, however, led him to underestimate the amount of remuneration required, and the scheme accordingly proved a failure. It must never be forgotten, however, that Cave was the first to give literary employment to Samuel Johnson when he arrived in London an unknown youth from the country.
Mr Cave continued to improve his magazine, and had the satisfaction of seeing its success proportionate to his diligence, till 1751, when his wife died of an asthma. At first he did not seem much affected by her death; but in a few days he became feverish, and lost his appetite. After having lingered for about two years, he was seized with a diarrhoea by drinking acid liquors; and afterwards falling into a kind of lethargic insensibility, he died on the 10th of January 1754, having concluded the twenty-third annual collection of his magazine.