William, LL.D., one of the most spirited and versatile of modern writers, was born at Cork in 1793. He received his elementary education at an academy, conducted by his father, in his native town; and at the early age of ten years entered Trinity College, Dublin, which afterwards honoured him with the degree of LL.D. On leaving college, he divided his time between assisting his father as a schoolmaster and contributing literary articles to various periodical publications. He began to contribute to Blackwood's Magazine in 1819, and the wit, irony, fun, and eloquence of "Sir Morgan O'Doherty" continued to adorn the pages of that journal till Maginn's death. In 1823 he visited London, where his elegant scholarship, pungent satire, and spirited style, soon procured for him constant employment. Maginn became joint-editor of the Standard newspaper in 1828; and two years afterwards established Fraser's Magazine, a publication to which he contributed very extensively. His trenchant, caustic pen sometimes got him into difficulties with the fashionable novelists, and Maginn was not at all slow to give "satisfaction" when it was deemed necessary. Of a generous, witty, jovial nature, he found one of his greatest snares in his fondness for society. The brilliant humorist and boon companion was sought after by every one; and by too freely submitting to the temptation to which he was thus exposed, he found, while yet in his prime, that health and means had alike deserted him. In 1842 he was cast into the Fleet prison for debt, and on being released by passing through the Insolvency Court, found himself in a state of utter beggary, from which he was relieved by death during August of the same year. He died of consumption at Walton-on-the-Thames, aged forty-eight years.