Almon, John

John Almon (December 17, 1737 - December 12, 1805) was an influential British political journalist, writer, bookseller, and publisher of the late 18th century. Almon was born in Liverpool and apprenticed as a printer before spending two years at sea and then moving to London to pursue a career as a writer. Almon quickly aligned with the opposition Whigs and became their main mouthpiece in the London press. Aside from writing his own Parliamentary reports, Almon opened a bookshop in Picadilly that sold political pamphlets and treatises. He quickly attracted attention and courted controversy, regularly putting himself at risk of censorship or arrest; his 1773 article on the sale of an office by John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich (namesake for the islands and food), cost the London Evening Post a hefty fine. Almon played an important role in establishing the principle of freedom of the press in Britain. Along with radical politician (one-time Mayor of London) and fellow political journalist John Wilkes (1725 - 1797), he won legal recognition of the right of printers to publish Parliamentary debates verbatim. Previously, printers could be arrested and jailed for such publications. However, Almon was protected through his position as an Alderman of London and attempted to protect other printers from this position. In 1774, he began publishing Parliamentary Register, a monthly report on Parliamentary debates. Like Wilkes, Almon was a supporter of the American colonists in their struggle for independence, reprinting Thomas Paine's Common Sense (with changes to accommodate the censors) and publishing a monthly magazine, The Remembrancer, about events in America. Almon's willingness to challenge the authorities gained him readers and a small fortune, but later in life he suffered several setbacks, including a failed effort to launch a newspaper, the loss of a libel suit after criticizing William Pitt, the Younger that led to his imprisonment for fourteen months, and debts and political pressure that caused him to flee the country for France for several years. Although he lived the rest of his life on bail for his earlier imprisonment, Almon continued to write and publish regularly into his last years.