William Combe (1742 - 1823)

William Combe

William Combe was a British writer and poet.

Combe authored a variety of prose and satirical verse, but is best known for the popular Dr. Syntax series of books published between 1812 and 1821, for which he wrote the text and artist Thomas Rowlandson did the drawings. The first book in the series, The Journey of Dr. Syntax: In Search of the Picturesque (1812), was published by the publisher Rudolf Ackerman, and he oversaw further collaboration between Combe and Rowlandson. William Combe's poems about Dr. Syntax with Rowlandson's illustrations were immensely popular in their day.