Max Beerbohm

Birth: 1872-08-24 , Londres

Death: 1956-05-20 , Rapallo

Sir Henry Maximilian Beerbohm was an English writer, essayist, critic, and caricaturist. Known for his elegant and witty style, he stood out in the literature of his time. His most famous work is "The Works of Max Beerbohm" (1921), a collection of his essays, and the novel "Zuleika Dobson" (1911). Beerbohm was also a talented caricaturist, producing satirical portraits of prominent figures of Edwardian society.

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Poems List

Death cancels all engagements.

[ Of British music-hall comedian Dan Leno :] Only mediocrity can be trusted to be always at its best. Genius must always have lapses proportionate to its triumphs.

To give an accurate and exhaustive account of the period would need a far less brilliant pen than mine.

No fine work can be done without concentration and self-sacrifice and toil and doubt.

A man’s work is rather the needful supplement to himself than the outcome of it.

People seem to think there is something inherently noble and virtuous in the desire to go for a walk.

Improvisation is the essence of good talk. Heaven defend us from the talker who doles out things prepared for us! But let heaven not less defend us from the beautifully spontaneous writer who puts his trust in the inspiration of the moment!

Reverence is a good thing, and part of its value is that the more we revere a man, the more sharply are we struck by anything in him (and there is always much) that is incongruous with his greatness.

Not philosophy, after all, not humanity, just sheer joyous power of song, is the primal thing in poetry.

There is in the human race some dark spirit of recalcitrance, always pulling us in the direction contrary to that in which we are reasonably expected to go.

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Sir Henry Maximilian Beerbohm was born in London, England, on August 24, 1872. He was the youngest son of Henry Beerbohm, a grain merchant, and his second wife, Eliza Draper. Educated at Charterhouse School and Merton College, Oxford, Beerbohm soon distanced himself from formal academic studies to dedicate himself to the arts and writing. He gained fame as one of the finest essayists in English literature, known for his ironic style, his sharp observations on society, and his polished prose. "Zuleika Dobson," his only novel, is a comic fantasy set in Oxford. As a theater critic, Beerbohm was respected for his intelligence and wit. His caricatures, published in newspapers and magazines, humorously and insightfully portrayed literary, political, and social figures of his time, including Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, and Theodore Roosevelt. He was knighted in 1939. Sir Max Beerbohm died in Rapallo, Italy, on October 20, 1956.