author
John Dover Wilson
1881–1969
A leading Shakespeare scholar of the 20th century, he helped shape how generations of readers and students approached the plays. Best known for his work on Hamlet and for editing major Shakespeare editions, he brought both close textual study and lively interpretation to the page.
2 Audiobooks
The War and Democracy
by R. W. (Robert William) Seton-Watson, Arthur Greenwood, John Dover Wilson, Alfred Zimmern
John Lyly
by John Dover Wilson
About the author
John Dover Wilson was a British literary scholar and academic whose work centered on Renaissance drama, especially Shakespeare. Born in Mortlake in 1881, he studied at Lancing College and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, then taught at King’s College London before becoming Regius Professor of English Literature at the University of Edinburgh.
He is especially remembered for his long involvement with the New Shakespeare series published by Cambridge University Press. Hamlet was a particular lifelong interest, and books such as What Happens in Hamlet helped make him one of the best-known Shakespeare critics of his time.
Beyond his university posts, Wilson also served as a trustee of Shakespeare’s Birthplace and of the National Library of Scotland. He died in 1969, leaving a body of scholarship that remained influential for readers trying to understand both the texts of Shakespeare’s plays and the dramatic life inside them.