William Archer, English critic, was born in Perth, and was educated
at the University of Edinburgh. He became a leader-writer on the
Edinburgh Evening News in 1875, and after a year in Australia returned
to Edinburgh. In 1879 he became dramatic critic of the London Figaro,
and in 1884 of the World. In London he soon took a prominent literary
place.
Mr.
Archer had much to do with introducing Ibsen to the English public
by his translation The Pillars of Society, produced at the Gaiety
Theatre, London, 1880. He also translated, alone or in collaboration,
other productions of the Scandinavian stage: Ibsen's A Doll's
House (1889), The Master Builder (1893); Edvard Brandes's A Visit
(1892); Ibsen's Peer Gynt (1892); Little Eyolf (1895); and John
Gabriel Borkman (1897); and he edited Henrik Ibsen's Prose Dramas
vols., 1890-1891).
Among
his critical works are:
English
Dramatists of To-day (1882)
Masks or Faces? (1888)
five volumes of critical notices reprinted, The Theatrical World
(1893)
America To-day, Observations and Reflections
Poets the Younger Generation (1901)
Real Conversations (1904)
The Old Drama and the New (1923)
Play:
The Green Goddess (1923)
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