Gradgrind Gradgrind Mr Thomas Gradgrind is the notorious school board Superintendent in Dickens's novel "Hard Times" who is dedicated to the pursuit of profitable enterprise. His name is now used generically to refer to someone who is hard and only concerned with cold facts and numbers. In the story, the man himself he was the father of five children, naming them after prominent utilitarians such as Robert Malthus. He also ran a model school where young pupils were treated as machines pitchers which were to be filled to the brim with facts. This satirised Scottish philosopher James Mill who attempted to
Thomas Onwhyn an edition from Grattan of Nicholas Nickleby (1839) which Dickens referred to in a letter of 13 July 1838 commenting on ‘"the singular Vileness of the Illustrations"’ (Letters of Charles Dickens, 1.414). Onwhyn married Marian in 1866 and they had sons Thomas and Herbert. Thomas Onwhyn Thomas Onwhyn (c.1811 - 21 January 1886) was an English artist, illustrator, engraver, satirist, and cartoonist. He also published an illustrated pirate edition of "The Pickwick Papers" in 1837 under the pen-name of "Samuel Weller", after Dicken's character in the book. He may have also used other pseudonyms including "Peter Paul Palette". He also