John Lesslie Hall (March 2, 1856 – February 23, 1928), also known as J. Lesslie Hall, was an American literary scholar and poet known for his translation of ''
Beowulf
''Beowulf'' (; ang, Bēowulf ) is an Old English epic poem in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and most often translated works of Old English literature. The ...
''.
Born in
Richmond, Virginia
(Thus do we reach the stars)
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, the son of Jacob Hall, Jr., Hall attended
Randolph–Macon College and received a PhD from
Johns Hopkins University. He taught English history and literature at the
College of William & Mary from 1888 to 1928 (becoming head of
the English department and dean of the faculty, and receiving an honorary
LLD
Legum Doctor (Latin: “teacher of the laws”) (LL.D.) or, in English, Doctor of Laws, is a doctorate-level academic degree in law or an honorary degree, depending on the jurisdiction. The double “L” in the abbreviation#Plural forms, abbrev ...
in 1921); he "was one of the original members of the faculty which reopened the college in 1888". He was also concerned with the history of his native Virginia; he frequently spoke at
Jamestown and "compared Jamestown's Great Charter of 1618 and the
assembly of 1619 with the
Magna Charta at
Runnymede."
In 1889 he married Margaret Fenwick Farland, of
Tappahannock, Virginia. Their children were Channing Moore Hall,
John L. Hall Jr., Joseph Farland Hall, and Sarah Moore Hall.
rootsweb
Hall's ''Beowulf'' follows the text closely, with alliteration:
Selected works
*(tr.) ''Beowulf: An Anglo-Saxon Epic Poem'' (D. C. Heath, 1897)
*''Judas: A Drama in Five Acts'' (H. T. Jones, 1894)
*(tr.) ''Judith, Phœnix, and Other Anglo-Saxon Poems'' (Silver, Burdett and Company, 1902)
*''Old English Idyls'' (Ginn & Company, 1899), original poems in the style of Old English verse
*''Half-hours in Southern History'' (B. F. Johnson Publishing Co., 1907)
*''English Usage: Studies in the History and Uses of English Words and Phrases'' (Scott, Foresman and Company, 1917)
Notes
External links
John Lesslie Hall Papers, 1885–1928
at the Special Collections Research Center of the College of William and Mary
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hall, John Lesslie
1856 births
1938 deaths
Randolph–Macon College alumni
Johns Hopkins University alumni
College of William & Mary faculty
Writers from Richmond, Virginia
Historians from Virginia
19th-century American historians
19th-century American male writers
20th-century American historians
20th-century American male writers
American male non-fiction writers
19th-century American translators
20th-century American translators