Thomas Frost

Thomas Frost (16 December 1821 – 16 July 1908) was an English writer, journalist, lecturer, printer and Chartist.

Early years

Thomas Frost was born in Croydon in Surrey (now part of Greater London) on 16 December 1821, the son of a tailor who had read William Cobbett's Political Register and took part in the agitation to secure the Reform Act 1832. Apprenticed to a printer (his cousin Cornelius Chapman) in Norwood, London, Thomas started his own printing firm in the same town after Chapman's business became bankrupt.

Career

In 1846 he took over the publication of John Goodwyn Barmby's Communist Chronicle, a monthly paper which had been discontinued for financial reasons. Frost revived the Chronicle as a weekly publication and reduced the price from 3d. to 1d. with Barmby retaining editorial control. Differences between Barmby and Frost on their aims caused publication to cease. Frost then started a short-lived Communist Journal. From 1847 to 1848 he was associated with the Fraternal Democrats.

According to the historian Peter Gurney, Frost's difficulty making money through radical journalism encouraged him to write the semipornographic novel Emma Mayfield (1848), which sold around 10,000 copies. It was inspired by William Hogarth's A Harlot's Progress and the serial model provided by Eugene Sue.

From 1859 Frost was a leader writer for the Liverpool Albion weekly newspaper, on foreign politics and social questions. The newspaper maintained a political viewpoint independent of the main political parties until 1872, when a new proprietor, a member of the Conservative Party, recast the paper as a morning daily. Frost's terms of employment were now changed so that he was only paid for articles that were published; he was contracted to provide two articles per week, but many were not published, being politically incompatible. His income falling by one-third he left the Albion.