Editing Max Beerbohm (section)

==Early life==
[[File:Max Beerbohm 57 Palace Gardens Terrace blue plaque.jpg|thumb|150px|left|[[Blue plaque]] at 57 Palace Gardens Terrace, Kensington, London]]
[[File:Max Beerbohm in boyhood.png|thumb|right|200px|Beerbohm as a child]]

Born in 57 Palace Gardens Terrace, London<ref>''[[The Times]]'', 26 August 1872: "On the 24th instant, at 57 Palace Gardens Terrace, Kensington, the wife of JE Beerbohm, Esq., of a son."</ref> which is now marked with a [[blue plaque]],<ref>{{cite web| url=http://openplaques.org/plaques/415 | title=Max Beerbohm Blue Plaque | publisher=openplaques.org | access-date=11 May 2013}}</ref> Henry Maximilian Beerbohm was the youngest of nine children of a [[Lithuania]]n-born [[grain trade|grain merchant]], Julius Ewald Edward Beerbohm (1811–1892). His mother was Eliza Draper Beerbohm (c. 1833–1918), the sister of Julius's late first wife. Although the Beerbohms were supposed by some to be of Jewish descent,<ref>{{cite book|author-link1=William Rubinstein|author-link3=Hilary L. Rubinstein|last1=Rubinstein|first1=William D.|last2=Jolles|first2=Michael|last3=Rubinstein|first3=Hilary L.|title=The Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hJc8afOZV0QC|year=2011|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-1-4039-3910-4|page=64}}</ref> on looking into the question in his later years Beerbohm told a biographer:
{{blockquote|I should be delighted to know that we Beerbohms have that very admirable and engaging thing, Jewish blood. But there seems to be no reason for supposing that we have. Our family records go back as far as 1668, and there is nothing in them compatible with Judaism.<ref>Hall, N. John, ''Max Beerbohm — A Kind of Life'', New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002, p. 226.</ref>|}} 
Beerbohm was close to four half-siblings, one of whom, [[Herbert Beerbohm Tree]], was already a renowned stage actor when Max was a child.<ref name = dict>{{Citation | title = Dictionary of Literary Biography | volume = 34: British Novelists, 1890–1929: Traditionalists | editor-first = Thomas F | editor-last = Staley | publisher = Gale Research | year = 1984}}.</ref> Other older half-siblings were the author and explorer [[Julius Beerbohm]]<ref name=odnb>{{Citation | first = N. John | last = Hall | contribution = Beerbohm, Sir Henry Maximilian [Max] (1872–1956) | title = Oxford Dictionary of National Biography | publisher = [[Oxford University Press]] | orig-year = 2004 | edition = online |date=January 2008}}.</ref> and the author [[Constance Beerbohm]]. His nieces were [[Viola Tree|Viola]], [[Felicity Tree|Felicity]] and [[Iris Tree]].

[[File:max-beerbohm-1897.jpg|thumb|Max Beerbohm, self-caricature (1897)]]

From 1881 to 1885, Max – he was always called simply "Max" and it is thus that he signed his drawings – attended the day school of a Mr Wilkinson in [[Orme Square]]. Wilkinson, Beerbohm later said, "gave me my love of Latin and thereby enabled me to write English".<ref>{{Citation | first = William | last = Rothenstein | title = Men and Memories: recollections of William Rothenstein, 1900–1922 | year = 1932 | pages = 370–71}}.</ref> Mrs Wilkinson taught drawing to the students, the only lessons Beerbohm ever had in the subject.<ref name =odnb/>

Beerbohm was educated at [[Charterhouse School]] and [[Merton College, Oxford]], from 1890, where he was Secretary of the [[Myrmidon Club]]. It was at school that he began writing. While at [[Oxford]] Beerbohm became acquainted with [[Oscar Wilde]] and his circle through his half-brother, [[Herbert Beerbohm Tree]]. In 1893, he met [[William Rothenstein]], who introduced him to [[Aubrey Beardsley]] and other members of the literary and artistic circle connected with [[The Bodley Head]].<ref>{{Citation | url = http://research.hrc.utexas.edu:8080/hrcxtf/view?docId=ead/00183.xml | place = U Texas | title = Max Beerbohm: An Inventory of His Art Collection | publisher = Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center}}.</ref>

Although he was an unenthusiastic student academically, Beerbohm became a well-known figure in Oxford social circles. He also began submitting articles and caricatures to London publications, which were met enthusiastically. "I was a modest, good-humoured boy", he recalled. "It was Oxford that has made me insufferable."<ref>{{cite web |title=Penguin Random House |url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/1813/max-beerbohm/ |website=Penguin Random House |access-date=18 February 2023}}</ref> In March 1893, he submitted an article on Oscar Wilde to the ''Anglo-American Times'' under the pen name "An American". Later in 1893 his essay "The Incomparable Beauty of Modern Dress" was published in the Oxford journal ''The Spirit Lamp'' by its editor, [[Lord Alfred Douglas]].<ref>{{Citation | last = Mix | first = Katherine Lyon | title = Max and the Americans | publisher = The Stephen Greene Press | place = Vermont | year = 1974 | page = 3}}</ref>

By 1894, having developed his personality as a dandy and humourist, and already a rising star in English letters, he left Oxford without a degree.<ref name = dict /> His ''[[A Defence of Cosmetics]]'' (''The Pervasion of Rouge'') appeared in the first edition of ''[[The Yellow Book]]'' in 1894, his friend Aubrey Beardsley being art editor at the time. At this time Wilde said of him, "The gods have bestowed on Max the gift of perpetual old age."<ref name=Wilde>Tweed Conrad, [https://books.google.com/books?id=RQXnWaqzF2EC&pg=PA215 ''Oscar Wilde in Quotation: 3,100 Insults, Anecdotes and Aphorisms, Topically Arranged with Attributions''], McFarland and Company, Inc., Publishers (2006), p. 215, via [[Google Books]].</ref><ref name=Gopnik>[http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/08/03/the-comparable-max "The Comparable Max: Max Beerbohm's cult of the diminutive"], [[Adam Gopnik]], ''[[The New Yorker]]'' (2015).</ref>

In 1895, Beerbohm went to the United States for several months as secretary to his half-brother Herbert Beerbohm Tree's theatrical company. He was fired when he spent far too many hours polishing the business correspondence. There he became engaged to Grace Conover, an American actress in the company, a relationship that lasted several years.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}