Gilbert, Sir William Schwenck (1836-1911), was one of the most eminent playwrights in Victorian England. He wrote both serious and comic plays, but he became best known for a series of comic operettas he wrote with the English composer Sir Arthur Sullivan.
Gilbert was born on Nov. 18, 1836, in London. He began his literary career in 1861 by contributing articles, a column, and drawings to a periodical called Fun. In 1867, the magazine began publishing his comic ballads. They were collected in Bab Ballads (1869) and More Bab Ballads (1873). The poems provided material for several Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. Gilbert’s first work for the theater was a satire on Italian opera staged in 1866. He quickly wrote a number of other successful operatic burlesques. Gilbert and Sullivan began collaborating in 1871. For information about their collaboration, see Gilbert and Sullivan. Gilbert died on May 29, 1911.
