Eminent drama critic, translator, and journalist, William Archer achieved unexpected recognition at the age of sixty-five as the author of a successful formula melodrama, The Green Goddess (1920). Several other plays of his were rarely produced. By training a lawyer and by temperament more scholar-critic than creative artist (which is not to gainsay that he had written a novel, a short story, and a quantity of occasional poetry), Archer permanently affected the course of English drama through his translation and dogged, articulate defense of Henrik Ibsen in the 1880s and 1890s. Moreover, his authorship of numerous influential books on theatrical history and theory, his long advocacy of a national theater, his mastery of at least four Continental literatures, and his connections with many of the literary and dramatic personages of his day secure Archer's position in the annals of the drama.

Born in Perth, Scotland, Archer acquired his knowledge...