John Lesslie Hall
John Lesslie Hall | |
|---|---|
| Born | March 2, 1856 Richmond, Virginia, U.S. |
| Died | February 23, 1928 (aged 71) Williamsburg, Virginia, U.S. |
| Resting place | Hollywood Cemetery |
| Occupations |
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John Lesslie Hall (March 2, 1856 – February 23, 1928), also known as J. Lesslie Hall, was an American literary scholar and poet known for his translation of Beowulf.
Early life
[edit]John Lesslie Hall was born on March 2, 1856, in Richmond, Virginia, to Jacob Hall Jr. Hall attended Randolph–Macon College and received a PhD from Johns Hopkins University.[1]
Career
[edit]Hall taught English history and literature at the College of William & Mary from 1888 to 1928, becoming head of the English department and dean of the faculty, and receiving an honorary LLD in 1921. He "was one of the original members of the faculty which reopened the college in 1888".[1][2] He was also concerned with the history of his native Virginia; he frequently spoke at Jamestown and compared Jamestown's Great Charter of 1618[clarification needed] and the assembly of 1619 with the Magna Charta at Runnymede."[3]
Personal life
[edit]In 1889, he married Margaret Fenwick Farland, of Tappahannock, Virginia.[4] They had three sons and one daughter, Channing Moore, John Lesslie Jr., Joseph Farland, and Sarah Moore.[1][5]
Hall died on February 23, 1928, at his home in Williamsburg. He was buried in Hollywood Cemetery.[1]
Works
[edit]Hall's Beowulf follows the text closely, with alliteration:
| Old English verse | Hall's verse[6][7] |
|---|---|
Ðá cóm of móre under misthleoþum |
’Neath the cloudy cliffs came from the moor then |
Selected works
[edit]- (tr.) Beowulf: An Anglo-Saxon Epic Poem (D. C. Heath, 1892)
- Judas: A Drama in Five Acts (H. T. Jones, 1894)
- (tr.) Judith, Phœnix, and Other Anglo-Saxon Poems (Silver, Burdett and Company, 1902)
- Old English Idyls (Ginn & Company, 1899), original poems in the style of Old English verse
- Half-hours in Southern History (B. F. Johnson Publishing Co., 1907)
- English Usage: Studies in the History and Uses of English Words and Phrases (Scott, Foresman and Company, 1917)
Notes
[edit]- ^ a b c d "Dr. J. Lesslie Hall To Be Buried Here". The Richmond News Leader. 1928-02-24. p. 26. Retrieved 2025-02-27 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Shirley Spain, "Vice-Admiral Hall Will Deliver Address at Commencement Exercises on June 12," The Flat Hat, May 24, 1949.
- ^ James Michael Lindgren, Preserving the Old Dominion: Historic Preservation and Virginia Traditionalism (University of Virginia Press, 1993: ISBN 0-8139-1450-7), p. 97.
- ^ Mildred Lewis Rutherford, The South in History and Literature, a Handbook of Southern Authors, from the Settlement of Jamestown 1607, to Living Writers (Franklin-Turner, 1906), p. 704.
- ^ rootsweb.
- ^ Hall, J. Lesslie (1892). Beowulf: An Anglo-Saxon Epic Poem. Boston: D. C. Heath and Company. p. 26.
- ^ Beowulf: An Anglo-Saxon Epic Poem. Project Gutenberg
External links
[edit]- John Lesslie Hall Papers, 1885–1928 at the Special Collections Research Center of the College of William and Mary
- Works by John Lesslie Hall at Project Gutenberg
- Works by John Lesslie Hall at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Works by or about John Lesslie Hall at the Internet Archive
| International | |
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| National | |
| Artists | |
| Other | |
- 1856 births
- 1928 deaths
- Randolph–Macon College alumni
- Johns Hopkins University alumni
- College of William & Mary faculty
- Writers from Richmond, Virginia
- Historians from Virginia
- Burials at Hollywood Cemetery (Richmond, Virginia)
- 19th-century American historians
- 19th-century American male writers
- 20th-century American historians
- 20th-century American male writers
- American male non-fiction writers
- 19th-century American translators
- 20th-century American translators