Pierce Egan was a British journalist, sportswriter, and pop culture writer. His successful book Life in London, published in 1821, was transformed into the stage play Tom and Jerry, or Life in London later that year, becoming the first play to have a continuous run of 100 performances at the Adelphi Theatre in London's West End. The first collection of his prizefighting essays, Boxiana; or Sketches of Ancient and Modern Pugilism, was published in 1813. He coined the term "the Sweet Science" as an adjective for prizefighting, which he named "the Sweet Science of Bruising" as a description of England's bare-knuckle fight scene. Egan's parents were Irish, however he could have been born in the London region. He moved into printing and worked as a compositor for George Smeeton in 1812. He established himself as the country's leading sports writer, which at the time primarily covered prize bouts and horse racing. He died on August 3, 1849, and was buried on August 10, on the western side of Highgate Cemetery in North London. His plot no longer has a headstone or other identifying markers. The inscription on his grave was included in the book Monumental Inscriptions of Middlesex Vol 2 and reads: "Sacred to the memory of Pierce Egan, Author of various popular works, who died on August 3, 1849.
