Max Beerbohm is one of Britain's greatest and best-loved comic artists. He was born Henry Maximilian Beerbohm on 24 August 1872 at 57 Palace Gardens Terrace, London, into a lively, successful and doting family. His father, Julius Ewald Beerbohm (1810-1892) of Lithuanian, Dutch and German descent, hailed from Memel [now renamed Klaipeda and the chief port of Lithuania] on the Baltic coast. He came to England about 1830 and set up as a corn-merchant. When his first wife, Constantia Draper died, leaving four children behind her, he married her sister, Eliza. She bore Beerbohm five children of whom three survived: Agnes (1865-1948), Dora (1868-1940), and Max, the baby of the family. In infancy he was prematurely precocious; in maturity he sustained the delights of a child.
He attended a
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Citation: Davison, Sarah Jane. "Sir Max Beerbohm". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 August 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=328, accessed 24 November 2024.]