Editing Max Beerbohm (section)

==Personal life==
[[File:Max-beerbohm-later.jpg|thumb|upright=0.7|Beerbohm in his later years. As a young man in 1894 [[Oscar Wilde]] had said of him, "The gods have bestowed on Max the gift of perpetual old age."<ref name=Wilde/><ref name=Gopnik/>]]
[[File:Beerbohm-plot.jpg|thumb|Beerbohm's ashes are interred under the tile marked "MB"]]
Beerbohm married the actress [[Florence Kahn (actress)|Florence Kahn]] in 1910. There has been speculation that he was a non-active homosexual ([[Malcolm Muggeridge]], who much disliked him, imputed homosexuality to him), that his marriage was never consummated, that he was a "natural celibate" or even just [[Asexuality|asexual]].{{Sfn | Hall | 2002 | pp = 120–21}}<ref>{{Citation | last = Muggeridge | first = Malcolm | chapter = The legend of Max | title = Tread Softly For You Tread on My Jokes | publisher = Fontana | year = 1966}}. Muggeridge does not speculate, he asserts, but without providing clear evidence. He also asserts Beerbohm's Jewish ancestry, again without supplying confirmation. The article describes Muggeridge's visit to Beerbohm in Rapallo late in Beerbohm's life.</ref>

[[Lord David Cecil|David Cecil]] wrote that, "though he showed no moral disapproval of homosexuality, [Beerbohm] was not disposed to it himself; on the contrary he looked upon it as a great misfortune to be avoided if possible." Cecil quotes a letter from Beerbohm to [[Oscar Wilde]]'s friend [[Robbie Ross|Robert Ross]] in which he asks Ross to keep [[Reginald Turner (writer)|Reggie Turner]] from the clutches of [[Lord Alfred Douglas]], "I really think Reg is at a rather crucial point of his career – and should hate to see him fall an entire victim to the love that dare not tell its name."<ref name=stand/> The fact is that not much is known of Beerbohm's private life.

[[Evelyn Waugh]] also speculated that Beerbohm had made a ''[[mariage blanc]]'' but added: "Beerbohm remarked of [[John Ruskin|Ruskin]] that it was surprising he should marry, without knowing he was impotent." Waugh also observed, "the question is of little importance in an artist of Beerbohm's quality."<ref>{{Citation | last = Waugh | first = Evelyn | contribution = The Max Behind the Mask | editor-last = Gallagher | editor-first = Donat | title = Evelyn Waugh: a little order. A selection from his journalism | publisher = Eyre Methuen | place = London | year = 1977 | pages = 114–17 | isbn = 0-413-32700-0}}. Waugh does not give a source for this remark of Beerbohm's, though the two had met and corresponded occasionally.</ref>

There was also some speculation during his lifetime that Beerbohm was [[Jew]]ish. Muggeridge assumed that Beerbohm's Jewishness was certain. Beerbohm responded by saying that, disappointingly for him, he was not. However, both of his wives were Jews of German origin, although Florence was born and reared in [[Memphis, Tennessee]], in an immigrant family. She is described as an American.<ref>Cecil, Lord David, ''Max'' (New York: Atheneum, 1985), pp. 228–229.</ref>

When asked by [[George Bernard Shaw]] if he had any Jewish ancestors, Beerbohm replied: "That my talent is rather like Jewish talent I admit readily... But, being in fact a Gentile, I am, in a small way, rather remarkable, and wish to remain so."<ref name = stand>{{Citation | url = http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/001/840zushq.asp?pg=2 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110604093255/http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/001/840zushq.asp?pg=2 | url-status = dead | archive-date = 4 June 2011 | title = The Beerbohm Cult | first = Joseph | last = Epstein | journal = [[The Weekly Standard]] | date = 11 November 2002}}.</ref> In his poem ''[[Hugh Selwyn Mauberley]]'' [[Ezra Pound]], a neighbour in Rapallo – and later a supporter of fascism and anti-Semitism – caricatured Beerbohm as "Brennbaum", a Jewish artist.<ref>{{Citation | url = http://www.answers.com/topic/hugh-selwyn-mauberley-poem-3 | title = Answers | contribution = Hugh Selwyn Mauberley}}</ref>