author
Richard Arthur Austen-Leigh
1872–1961
Best known for helping preserve and deepen the family record of Jane Austen, this English printer and historian combined scholarly care with a close personal link to the Austen family. His work helped shape how later readers understood Austen’s life, letters, and background.
1 Audiobook
Jane Austen, Her Life and Letters: A Family Record
by William Austen-Leigh, Richard Arthur Austen-Leigh
About the author
Born on May 17, 1872, Richard Arthur Austen-Leigh was educated at Eton and at King's College, Cambridge, where he took a first in the Classical Tripos in 1894. He briefly worked as a clerk in the House of Commons before joining the printing world, becoming a director of Spottiswoode, Ballantyne & Co. from 1900.
Alongside his career in printing, he became known as a historian and biographer with a strong interest in Jane Austen and her family. He collaborated with William Austen-Leigh on Jane Austen, Her Life and Letters: A Family Record and also wrote other works connected with printing history and the Austen family, including Austen Papers, 1704–1856 and The Story of a Printing House.
He was active in public and professional life as well, serving as President of the British Federation of Master Printers in 1922–1923. Remembered as both a printer and a careful literary historian, he died in 1961 after helping preserve important family materials that remain valuable to Austen readers and scholars.