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)
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