William Lee (civil engineer)
Encyclopedia
William Lee was an English civil and sanitary engineer. He is now best known in his role as biographer and bibliographer of Daniel Defoe
.
in promoting his General Board of Health.
Lee was Secretary of the Sheffield Literary and Philosophical Society from 1845 to 1850. John Holland
was a friend.
on Defoe:
George Saintsbury
found Lee's attributions impressionistic; they brought the number of works credited to Defoe to 254, of which 64 were novel attributions. William Peterfield Trent
wrote that Lee's researches were set off by the discovery of correspondence showing that Defoe had worked as a government agent. Furbank and Owens state that Lee was motivated by the dislike he had for the radical Defoe portrayed by Walter Wilson
.
Daniel Defoe
Daniel Defoe , born Daniel Foe, was an English trader, writer, journalist, and pamphleteer, who gained fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe. Defoe is notable for being one of the earliest proponents of the novel, as he helped to popularise the form in Britain and along with others such as Richardson,...
.
Life
He was born in Sheffield, and became Surveyor of Highways. He was one of the inspectors recuited by Edwin ChadwickEdwin Chadwick
Sir Edwin Chadwick KCB was an English social reformer, noted for his work to reform the Poor Laws and improve sanitary conditions and public health...
in promoting his General Board of Health.
Lee was Secretary of the Sheffield Literary and Philosophical Society from 1845 to 1850. John Holland
John Holland (poet)
John Holland was an English poet and newspaper editor.-Life:Holland was born in a cottage in the grounds of the ancient Sheffield Manor in Yorkshire and initially trained by his father to follow him as a maker of optical instruments. He was however a bookish young man who taught himself Latin and...
was a friend.
Work on Defoe
He wrote numerous contributions to Notes and QueriesNotes and Queries
Notes and Queries is a long-running quarterly scholarly journal that publishes short articles related to "English language and literature, lexicography, history, and scholarly antiquarianism". Its emphasis is on "the factual rather than the speculative"...
on Defoe:
- http://english.illinoisstate.edu/digitaldefoe/multimedia/leeservitude.pdf
- http://english.illinoisstate.edu/digitaldefoe/multimedia/leemoralvii.pdf
- http://english.illinoisstate.edu/digitaldefoe/multimedia/leev.pdf
- http://english.illinoisstate.edu/digitaldefoe/multimedia/leevii.pdf
- http://english.illinoisstate.edu/digitaldefoe/multimedia/leeviii.pdf
George Saintsbury
George Saintsbury
George Edward Bateman Saintsbury , was an English writer, literary historian, scholar and critic.-Biography:...
found Lee's attributions impressionistic; they brought the number of works credited to Defoe to 254, of which 64 were novel attributions. William Peterfield Trent
William Peterfield Trent
William Peterfield Trent, LL.D., D.C.L. was a professor of English literature at Columbia University, an American editor, and a historian.-Biography:...
wrote that Lee's researches were set off by the discovery of correspondence showing that Defoe had worked as a government agent. Furbank and Owens state that Lee was motivated by the dislike he had for the radical Defoe portrayed by Walter Wilson
Walter Wilson (biographer)
Walter Wilson was an English biographer of nonconformist clergy and their churches.-Life:He was born about 1781, the illegitimate son of John Walter, the newspaper publisher. He was brought up a Presbyterian, and went to work at East India House as a clerk. In 1802 he went into journalism, and in...
.
Other works
- On Modern Carriageways: Being a Paper Read Before The Sheffield Literary and Philosophical Society, on Friday, November 3, 1843 (1843)
External links
- Table of 19th-century critical work on Defoe (PDF)
- http://english.illinoisstate.edu/digitaldefoe/multimedia/date.html
- rogerwilliams.net