Editor and novelist Payn then settled down in the Lake District to a literary career and contributed regularly to Household Words and Chambers's Journal. In 1858 he moved to Edinburgh to act as joint editor of the latter, and became its sole editor in 1860 with much success for 15 years. Meanwhile he moved to London in 1861. In the Journal he published in 1864 his most popular story, Lost Sir Massingberd."Personal Character of James Payn," The Literary Digest, 4 June 1898. Thereafter he was engaged in writing novels, including Richard Arbour or the Family Scapegrace (1861),John Payn. "The Family Scapegrace." In: My First Book, Chatto & Windus, 1897. Married Beneath Him (1865), Carlyon's Year (1868), A County Family (1869), By Proxy (1878), A Confidential Agent (1880), Thicker Than Water (1883), The Canon's Ward (1883), A Grape from a Thorn, The Talk of the Town (1885), and The Heir of the Ages (1886). Accessed 18 May 2010.
Editor and novelist Payn then settled down in the Lake District to a literary career and contributed regularly to Household Words and Chambers's Journal. In 1858 he moved to Edinburgh to act as joint editor of the latter, and became its sole editor in 1860 with much success for 15 years. Meanwhile he moved to London in 1861. In the Journal he published in 1864 his most popular story, Lost Sir Massingberd."Personal Character of James Payn," The Literary Digest, 4 June 1898. Thereafter he was engaged in writing novels, including Richard Arbou,r or the Family Scapegrace (1861),John Payn. "The Family Scapegrace." In: My First Book, Chatto & Windus, 1897. Married Beneath Him (1865), Carlyon's Year (1868), A County Family (1869), By Proxy (1878), A Confidential Agent (1880), Thicker Than Water (1883), The Canon's Ward (1883) A Grape from a Thorn, The Talk of the Town (1885), and The Heir of the Ages (1886). Accessed 18 May 2010.