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{{Short description|English biographer and critic (1859–1926)}}
{{About|the English writer|other people|Sydney Lee (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2021}}
{{Infobox writer
| honorific_prefix = [[Sir]]
| name          = Sidney Lee
| honorific_suffix = {{postnom|country=GBR|size=100|FSA|FBA}}
| image         = Sir-Sidney-Lee.jpg
| caption       = Sir Sidney in 1924
| birth_name    = Solomon Lazarus Lee 
| birth_date    = 5 December 1859
| birth_place   = [[Bloomsbury]], [[London]], England
| death_date    = {{death date and age|1926|3|3|1859|12|5|df=yes}}
| death_place   = [[Kensington]], London, England
| occupation    = {{hlist|Biographer|writer|critic}}
| nationality   = English
| education     = [[City of London School]]
| alma_mater    = [[Balliol College, Oxford]]
| notableworks  =
| years_active  =
| relatives     = [[Elizabeth Lee (writer)|Elizabeth Lee]] (sister)
}}
'''Sir Sidney Lee''' (5 December 1859 – 3 March 1926) was an English biographer, writer, and critic.

==Biography==
Lee was born '''Solomon Lazarus Lee''' in 1859 at 12 Keppel Street, [[Bloomsbury]], [[London]].  He was educated at the [[City of London School]] and at [[Balliol College, Oxford]], where he graduated in [[Modern History]] in 1882. In 1883, Lee became assistant-editor of the ''[[Dictionary of National Biography]]''.<ref name=":0">{{Cite EB1911 |wstitle=Lee, Sidney}}</ref> In 1890 he became joint editor and, on the retirement of Sir [[Leslie Stephen]] in 1891, succeeded him as editor.

Lee wrote over 800 articles in the ''Dictionary'', mainly on [[Elizabethan era|Elizabethan]] authors or [[politician|statesmen]].<ref name=":0" /> His sister [[Elizabeth Lee (writer)|Elizabeth Lee]] also contributed. While still at Balliol, Lee had written two articles on Shakespearean questions, which were printed in ''[[The Gentleman's Magazine]]''. In 1884, he published a book about [[Stratford-upon-Avon]], with illustrations by [[Edward Hull (watercolourist)|Edward Hull]]. Lee's entry on [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]] in the 51st volume (1897) of the ''Dictionary of National Biography'' formed the basis of his ''Life of William Shakespeare'' (1898), which reached its fifth edition in 1905.

In 1902, Lee edited the Oxford [[facsimile]] edition of the [[Folios and Quartos (Shakespeare)|first folio]] of Shakespeare's comedies, histories and tragedies, followed in 1902 and 1904 by supplementary volumes giving details of extant copies, and in 1906 by a complete edition of Shakespeare's works.

Lee received a [[Knight Bachelor|knighthood]] in 1911.<ref>{{Cite wikisource |wslink=The Times/1926/Obituary/Sidney Lee|title=Obituary: Sir Sidney Lee, Shakespearean scholar and biographer|date=1926|work=The Times|page=9}}</ref> Between 1913 and 1924, he served as professor of English Literature and Language at [[Queen Mary, University of London|East London College]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Sir Sidney Lee|website=Jewish Virtual Library|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/lee-sir-sidney}}</ref> In 1915 he delivered the British Academy's Shakespeare Lecture.<ref>{{cite web|title=Shakespeare Lectures|website=The British Academy|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/lee-sir-sidney}}</ref>

==Works==
Besides the editions of [[English literature|English classics]], Lee's works include:
*''Queen Victoria: A Biography'' (1902)
* ''Great Englishmen of the Sixteenth century'' (1904),<ref>{{cite journal|title=Review of ''Great Englishmen of the Sixteenth century'' by Sidney Lee|journal=The Athenaeum |issue=4030|date=January 21, 1905|pages=73–74|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MW0vAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA73}}</ref> based on his [[Lowell Institute]] lectures at [[Boston]], Massachusetts, in 1903
* ''Shakespeare and the Modern Stage'' (1906)<ref name=":0" />
* {{cite Q|Q107333538|author-mask=0}}<!-- Principles of Biography -->
* {{cite journal|title=Shakespeare and the Italian Renaissance|journal=Proceedings of the British Academy, 1915–1916|year=1976 |volume=7|pages=121–143|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015029917765&view=1up&seq=143}} Annual Shakespeare Lecture of the British Academy (1915)
* ''Shakespeare's England: an account of the life & manners of his age'' (1916, with [[Walter Alexander Raleigh]]) 
*''King Edward VII, a Biography'' (1925)<ref>{{wikisource author-inline}}</ref> (The second volume of the biography was completed, after Lee's death, by S. F. Markham and published in 1927.  See "King Edward VII: A Biography: Volume II: The Reign, 22nd January 1901 to 6th May 1910" by Sir Sidney Lee [New York: The Macmillan Company, 1927], page vi.)

There are personal letters from Lee, including those written during his final illness, in the T. F. Tout Collection of the [[John Rylands Library]] in [[Manchester]].

==See also==
* [[John Denham Parsons]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
{{wikisource|works=and}}
{{Commons category}}
* Sidney Lee ''[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2000.01.0013 Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome]''
* {{Gutenberg author |id=8246| name=Sidney Lee}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Sidney Lee}}
* {{Librivox author |id=11815}}
* {{OL author|163442A}}

{{Shakespeare scholars}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Sidney, Sir}}
[[Category:1859 births]]
[[Category:1926 deaths]]
[[Category:English biographers]]
[[Category:Jewish English writers]]
[[Category:Jewish historians]]
[[Category:People educated at the City of London School]]
[[Category:Shakespearean scholars]]
[[Category:Academics of Queen Mary University of London]]
[[Category:Editors of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London]]
[[Category:Fellows of the British Academy]]
[[Category:Knights Bachelor]]
[[Category:Royal biographers]]