author
Frederic Boase
1843–1916
Best known for the monumental reference work Modern English Biography, this Cornish librarian and biographer spent years gathering concise lives of notable people who might otherwise have been forgotten. His work became a valuable tool for historians, readers, and researchers interested in Victorian and Edwardian Britain.
2 Audiobooks
Modern English biography, volume 2 (of 4), I-Q
by Frederic Boase
Modern English biography, volume 1 (of 4), A-H
by Frederic Boase
About the author
Born in Penzance, Cornwall, on 7 October 1843, Frederic Boase was trained for the law and qualified as a solicitor, but he is chiefly remembered for his work as a librarian and biographer. He later became librarian to the Incorporated Law Society, a role that drew on his love of books, order, and careful research.
Boase's lasting achievement is Modern English Biography, a large-scale reference work collecting thousands of short memoirs of people who died after 1850. The project was admired for its range and persistence, especially because it preserved information on many figures who were overlooked by larger national biographies.
He never married, retired in the early twentieth century, and died at St Leonards on 23 December 1916. Though not a household name today, he left behind a work of reference that still reflects remarkable patience, accuracy, and devotion to literary history.