Sir Sidney Lee (5 December 1859 – 3 March 1926) was an English biographer, writer, and critic.
Biography
Lee was born Solomon Lazarus Lee in 1859 at 12 Keppel Street,
Bloomsbury,
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
. He was educated at the
City of London School and at
Balliol College, Oxford, where he graduated in
Modern History
The modern era or the modern period is considered the current historical period of human history. It was originally applied to the history of Europe and Western history for events that came after the Middle Ages, often from around the year 1500, ...
in 1882. In 1883, Lee became assistant-editor of the ''
Dictionary of National Biography''.
In 1890 he became joint editor and, on the retirement of Sir
Leslie Stephen in 1891, succeeded him as editor.
Lee wrote over 800 articles in the ''Dictionary'', mainly on
Elizabethan authors or
statesmen.
His sister
Elizabeth Lee also contributed. While still at Balliol, Lee had written two articles on Shakespearean questions, which were printed in ''
The Gentleman's Magazine''. In 1884, he published a book about
Stratford-upon-Avon
Stratford-upon-Avon ( ), commonly known as Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon (district), Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands region of Engl ...
, with illustrations by
Edward Hull. Lee's entry on
Shakespeare in the 51st volume (1897) of the ''Dictionary of National Biography'' formed the basis of his ''Life of William Shakespeare'' (1898), which reached its fifth edition in 1905.
In 1902, Lee edited the Oxford
facsimile edition of the
first folio
''Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies'' is a collection of plays by William Shakespeare, commonly referred to by modern scholars as the First Folio, published in 1623, about seven years after Shakespeare's death. It is cons ...
of Shakespeare's comedies, histories and tragedies, followed in 1902 and 1904 by supplementary volumes giving details of extant copies, and in 1906 by a complete edition of Shakespeare's works.
Lee received a
knighthood in 1911. Between 1913 and 1924, he served as professor of English Literature and Language at
East London College. In 1915 he delivered the British Academy's Shakespeare Lecture.
Works
Besides the editions of
English classics, Lee's works include:
*''Queen Victoria: A Biography'' (1902)
* ''Great Englishmen of the Sixteenth century'' (1904), based on his
Lowell Institute lectures at
Boston
Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
, Massachusetts, in 1903
* ''Shakespeare and the Modern Stage'' (1906)
*
* Annual Shakespeare Lecture of the British Academy (1915)
* ''Shakespeare's England: an account of the life & manners of his age'' (1916, with
Walter Alexander Raleigh)
*''King Edward VII, a Biography'' (1925)
(The second volume of the biography was completed, after Lee's death, by S. F. Markham and published in 1927. See "King Edward VII: A Biography: Volume II: The Reign, 22nd January 1901 to 6th May 1910" by Sir Sidney Lee
ew York: The Macmillan Company, 1927 page vi.)
There are personal letters from Lee, including those written during his final illness, in the T. F. Tout Collection of the
John Rylands Library in
Manchester
Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...
.
See also
*
John Denham Parsons
References
External links
* Sidney Lee
Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome'
*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Sidney, Sir
1859 births
1926 deaths
English biographers
Jewish English writers
Jewish historians
People educated at the City of London School
Shakespearean scholars
Academics of Queen Mary University of London
Editors of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London
Fellows of the British Academy
Knights Bachelor