The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07.
Croker, John Wilson
(kr´kr) (KEY) , 17801857, British Tory politician and author, b. Ireland. He was a member of Parliament from 1807 to 1832 and secretary of the admiralty from 1810 to 1830. The most famous of his regular contributions as a critic to the Quarterly Review was his virulent attack (1818) on Keatss Endymion. Crokers best work was his careful edition (1831) of Boswells Life of Johnson.