Sir Max Beerbohm

Born in London in 1872, he became one of the great stylists of English prose, admired for essays that were polished, playful, and unmistakably personal. He studied at Oxford, wrote for The Yellow Book while still young, and quickly built a reputation as both a man of letters and a gifted caricaturist.

He wrote criticism, fiction, and essays, but is especially remembered for The Works of Max Beerbohm, Zuleika Dobson, and his brilliant comic portraits of literary and social life. His drawings were just as celebrated as his prose, and together they made him a distinctive figure in late Victorian and early 20th-century culture.

Later in life he lived for many years in Italy and was knighted in 1939. He died in 1956, leaving behind a body of work that still feels fresh for its wit, precision, and amused understanding of human vanity.