John Dover Wilson

Born in London on July 13, 1881, J. Dover Wilson was a British scholar, teacher, and one of the major Shakespeare critics of the twentieth century. He studied at Cambridge and later held senior academic posts including professor of education at King’s College London and regius professor of English literature at the University of Edinburgh.

Wilson is especially remembered for his work as chief editor of the New Cambridge Shakespeare, a role he took on in 1921. He became known for close attention to textual detail, including Elizabethan handwriting, and for interpretations that could be daring and debated in equal measure. That mix of scholarship and strong opinion made him an important, distinctive voice in Shakespeare studies.

Among his best-known books are What Happens in Hamlet (1959) and The Fortunes of Falstaff (1943), along with works such as The Essential Shakespeare, Shakespeare’s Happy Comedies, and Shakespeare’s Sonnets. He died on January 15, 1969, in Balerno, Midlothian, Scotland.