Frederick Knight Hunt

Frederick Knight Hunt (1814–1854) was an English journalist and author, known for The Fourth Estate, a history of journalism.

Life Hunt was born in Buckinghamshire, to a humble family background. At the time of his father's death, around 1830, Hunt was a night boy in a printer's office; to support his family, he took on a day job as a clerk to a barrister, who gave him an introduction to a morning newspaper. He also studied medicine, at the North London School of Medicine, and qualified as a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, in 1840.

In 1839 Hunt founded the Medical Times, initially edited by Robert Knox. Hunt, however, made little from it, and had to sell, to T. P. Healey, in 1841. There were reasons concerning family and money troubles. On the establishment of the Daily News in 1846, he was selected by Dickens as one of the assistant editors. In 1851 he was made chief editor, and under him the paper first became prosperous. Other recruits were Edwin Lawrence Godkin, sent to the Ottoman Empire, and Harriet Martineau as a leader writer, who became a prolific contributor.

Hunt died of typhus fever, 18 November 1854.