William Archer (September 23, 1856 - December 27, 1924), English critic, was born in Perth, and was educated at Edinburgh University.

He became a leader-writer on the Edinburgh Evening News in 1875, and after a year in Australia returned to Edinburgh. In 1879 he became dramatic critic of the London Figaro, and in 1884 of the World. In London he soon took a prominent literary place.

Mr Archer had much to do with introducing Ibsen to the English public by his translation The Pillars of Society , produced at the Gaiety Theatre, London, 1880. He also translated, alone or in collaboration, other productions of the Scandinavian stage: Ibsen's A Doll's House (1889), The Master Builder (1893); Edvard Brandes 's A Visit (1892); Ibsen's Peer Gynt (1892); Little Eyolf (1895); and John Gabriel Borkman (1897); and he edited Henrik Ibsen's Prose Dramas vols., 1890-1891).

Among his critical works are:

• English Dramatists of To-day (1882)
• Masks or Faces? (1888)
• five volumes of critical notices reprinted, The Theatrical World (1893)
• America To-day, Observations and Reflections
• Poets the Younger Generation (1901)
• Real Conversations (1904)
• The Old Drama and the New (1923)

Play:

• The Green Goddess (1923)

External links

• eTexts of Archer's works, at Project Gutenberg