Short answers, pulled from the story.
James Fraser (1804-1841) was a Scottish publisher who operated at 215 Regent Street, London. He is known for publishing Thomas Carlyle's Hero Worship and for founding Fraser's Magazine, which ran from February 1830 and featured contributors including William Makepeace Thackeray, James Hogg, and Thomas Love Peacock.
On the 3rd of August 1836, Grantley Berkeley assaulted Fraser after Fraser's magazine published criticism of Berkeley's novel Berkeley Castle. Cross actions were tried on the 3rd of December, with Fraser suing for assault and Berkeley countersuing for libel. The court awarded £100 in damages for the assault and only £2 for the libel.
Fraser's Magazine took its name from Hugh Fraser, a barrister who had co-founded the magazine alongside William Maginn. James Fraser himself referred to the publication as "The Town and Country" rather than by the name it became known under.
After Fraser's death in 1841, the magazine passed to G. W. Nickisson, whose name first appeared on it in 1842. Five years later it transferred to John William Parker, and the magazine continued under the same name until October 1882, when it was superseded by Longman's Magazine.
The Gallery of Illustrious Literary Characters was a series published in Fraser's Magazine between 1830 and 1838, comprising 81 portraits mainly drawn by Daniel Maclise with text by William Maginn. A quarto volume of 34 portraits appeared in 1833, and the complete gallery was republished for the first time in 1874. A later edition by William Bates, titled The Maclise Portrait Gallery, appeared in London in 1883 with 85 portraits.
James Fraser died on the 2nd of October 1841 at Argyll Street, London, after a lingering illness. He was thirty-seven years old at the time of his death.