Sir Max Beerbohm (Max Beerbohm)

Sir Max Beerbohm

Caricaturist, Author. Born in London, England. The youngest of nine children of a Lithuanian-born grain merchant, Julius Ewald Edward Beerbohm (1811–92). His mother was Eliza Draper Beerbohm (d. 1918).  Affectionately known to everyone as “Max” he was the younger half brother of the actor-producer Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, he was accustomed to fashionable society from his boyhood. While still an undergraduate at Merton College, Oxford, Max published witty essays in the famous Yellow Book. In 1895 he toured the United States as press agent for Beerbohm Tree’s theatrical company. His first literary collection, The Works of Max Beerbohm, and his first book of drawings, Caricatures of Twenty-five Gentlemen, appeared in 1896. In 1898 he succeeded Shaw as drama critic of the Saturday Review. His charming fable The Happy Hypocrite appeared in 1897 and his only novel, Zuleika Dobson, a burlesque of Oxford life, in 1911. The Christmas Garland (1912) is a group of Christmas stories that mirror the stylistic faults of a number of well-known writers, notably Henry James. His collection of stories, Seven Men (1919), is a masterpiece. Max married actress Florence Kahn in 1910. They settled in Rapallo, Italy, where, except for a return to England for the duration of World Wars I and II, they made their home in Rapallo for the rest of their lives. He was knighted by George VI in 1939. After his wife’s death in 1951, Max lived with his secretary-companion, Elizabeth Jungmann, whom he married a few weeks before his death at age 83. (bio by: Shock)  Family links:  Spouses:  Florence Kahn Beerbohm (1878 – 1951)*  Elisabeth Jungmann Beerbohm (1894 – 1958)* *Calculated relationship

Born

  • August, 24, 1872
  • England

Died

  • May, 05, 1956
  • Italy

Cemetery

  • Saint Paul's Cathedral
  • England

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