Beerbohm, Max (1872-1956), was an English comic writer and artist known for his brilliant wit. Beerbohm became most noted for literary satires and parodies. A satire uses humor or sarcasm to attack some form of human behavior, and a parody is a comic imitation of a literary work. In his art, Beerbohm used caricature, a style that ridicules people or objects by exaggerating their physical features.
One of Beerbohm’s best-known literary works is A Christmas Garland (1912), a collection of parodies of the styles of major writers of his day. His popular novel Zuleika Dobson (1911) provides a comic description of student life at Oxford University.
Beerbohm’s full name was Henry Maximilian Beerbohm. He was born on Aug. 24, 1872, in London, and graduated from Oxford. Beerbohm began his literary career in 1894 by contributing to the Yellow Book, an influential magazine. He became a member of London’s literary and artistic circle and, in 1898, joined the staff of the Saturday Review as drama critic. He succeeded George Bernard Shaw, the British dramatist, as critic for this well-known literary publication. Beerbohm’s drama reviews for the Saturday Review were collected in Around Theatres (1924). King George VI knighted him in 1939, and he became known as Sir Max Beerbohm. He died on May 20, 1956. His half brother, Herbert Beerbohm Tree, was a famous English actor and theater manager.
