Leonard Smithers

Gregory Mackie (University of British Columbia)

Ed. by Gillian Fenwick, University of Toronto
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.07: English Writing and Culture of the Victorian Period, 1837-1901.
Vol. editors: Gillian Fenwick (University of Toronto), Grace Moore (University of Otago)

Dates

Born 19 Dec 1861
Died 19 Dec 1907
Activity 1885-1907

Places

Born in England
Active in England

Activities

Primary

Publisher

Resources

A significant figure in the publishing and literary history of the British fin-de-siècle, Leonard Smithers (1861-1907) is perhaps best known as the publisher of the decadent periodical The Savoy (1896) and of other writers and artists associated with the decadent movement in the 1890s, such as Oscar Wilde, Aubrey Beardsley, Arthur Symons, and Ernest Dowson. In addition to his career as a legitimate publisher, Smithers, also an antiquarian book dealer, was a prolific clandestine publisher of late-Victorian pornography. Through the final decade of his career in the early twentieth century, he was also a literary pirate of some considerable output, particularly of the works of Wilde and Beardsley.

Leonard …

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2225 words

Citation: Mackie, Gregory. "Leonard Smithers". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 16 May 2008 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12100, accessed 21 November 2024.]

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