Walsh was born in Baltimore in 1784. He was educated in Catholic schools in Baltimore, and at the Jesuit College at Georgetown. While at college, in 1796, he delivered a political address before General Washington. He began the practice of law in Philadelphia. In 1817-18 he edited the _American Register_.
The _National Gazette_, a daily newspaper, was established by him in Philadelphia in 1819, and his connection with it did not cease until he sold it, in 1836, to William Fry.
The _Philadelphia Register_ had been a weekly paper, the title of which was changed, in 1819, to the _National Recorder_. It was founded in 1818 by E. Littell and S. Norris Henry. In July, 1821, it changed its name for the second time, and became the _Saturday Magazine_. De Quincey's "Confessions of an English Opium Eater" and the essays of Charles Lamb were published for the first time in America in the pages of the _Saturday Magazine_. In the following year (1822) the magazine became a monthly publication, and was called the _Museum of Foreign Literature and Science_. In this year (1822) it was edited by Robert Walsh. Toward the close of 1823 the proprietor gave notice that Mr. Walsh was no longer connected with the _Museum_. It was then conducted by Eliakim and Squier Littell. In 1843 the publication office was removed to New York, and the magazine was called the _Eclectic Museum of Foreign Literature and Science_. Littell had no connection with the magazine in this phase of its history. He went to Boston, and in 1844 established _Littell's Living Age_, of which he remained the proprietor until his death, May 17, 1870.
After retiring from the editorial chair of the _Museum_, Walsh successfully resuscitated the _American Quarterly Review_, which he published from March, 1827, to 1837.
The _Review_ was published by Carey, Lea and Carey. It appeared in March, June, September and December. Each number contained two hundred and fifty pages, and the subscription price was five dollars per annum. Some of Walsh's original works had met with approval in England. His "Letter on the Genius and Disposition of the French Government" passed through four editions in England, and was commended by Lord Jeffrey in the _Edinburgh Review_ (Vol. XVI, p. 1). The _American Quarterly Review_ did not share the same happy fate. The _Monthly Review_ said of it, "It is as dull a work of the kind as any that we know of. It is heavier even than the _Westminster_ when burthened by the lucubrations of Jeremy Bentham." Neal, in _Blackwood's_ (XVI, 634), sarcastically styled Walsh "The Jupiter of the American Olympus."
