William Aldis Wright (1 August 183119 May 1914), was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

writer and editor. Wright was son of George Wright, a Baptist minister in

Beccles Beccles ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the English county of Suffolk.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . The town is shown on the milestone as from London via the A145 and A12 roads, north-east of London as the crow fl ...

, Suffolk. He was educated at Beccles Grammar School and

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

, where he graduated BA in 1858. As a nonconformist, Wright was ineligible for election to a Trinity fellowship until 1878, but became Librarian and Senior Bursar of Trinity before that date. He opposed the allegations by Simonides that the ''

Codex Sinaiticus The Codex Sinaiticus ( Shelfmark: London, British Library, Add MS 43725), designated by siglum [Aleph] or 01 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 2 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscript ...

'' discovered by Constantin von Tischendorf was produced around 1840. Duly elected Fellow in 1878, he became vice-master of the college in 1888. He was one of the editors of the ''Journal of Philology'' from its foundation in 1868, and was secretary to the Old Testament revision company from 1870 to 1885. He edited the plays of

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

published in the "

Clarendon Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

" series (1868–97), also with W. G. Clark the "Cambridge" Shakespeare (1863–1866; 2nd ed. 1891–1893) and the "Globe" edition (1864). He added the

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

Index to 'The Survey of Western Palestine' in 1888. He published a facsimile of the Milton manuscript in the Trinity College library (1899), and edited Milton's poems with critical notes (1903). He was the intimate friend and

literary executor The literary estate of a deceased author consists mainly of the copyright and other intellectual property rights of published works, including film, translation rights, original manuscripts of published work, unpublished or partially completed w ...

of Edward FitzGerald, whose ''Letters and Literary Remains'' he edited in 1889. This was followed by the ''Letters of Edward FitzGerald to

Fanny Kemble Frances Anne "Fanny" Kemble (27 November 180915 January 1893) was a British actress from a theatre family in the early and mid-19th century. She was a well-known and popular writer and abolitionist, whose published works included plays, poetry ...

'' (1895), his ''Miscellanies'' (1900), ''More Letters of Edward FitzGerald'' (1901), and ''The Works of Edward FitzGerald'' (7 vols., 1903). He edited the metrical chronicle of Robert of Gloucester (1887), '' Generydes'' (1878) for the

Early English Text Society The Early English Text Society (EETS) is a text publication society founded in 1864 which is dedicated to the editing and publication of early English texts, especially those only available in manuscript. Most of its volumes contain editions of ...

, ''Catalogue of the Syriac manuscripts in the British Museum'' (1–3 vol., 1870–1872), and other texts. His last publication was ''The Hexaplar Psalter'' (1911). In 1912 he resigned from the vice-mastership of Trinity College. He donated a large collection of engravings by his uncle Thomas Higham to the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

in 1902. He is buried in the Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground in Cambridge.A Cambridge Necropolis by Dr.

Mark Goldie Mark Goldie is an English historian and Professor of Intellectual History at Churchill College, Cambridge. He has written on the English political theorist John Locke and is a member of the Early Modern History and Political Thought and Intellec ...

, 2000

Religious publications

*
The Bible word-book; a glossary of archaic words and phrases in the authorised version of the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer
' (1884) * ''The Hexaplar Psalter: Being the Book of Psalms in Six English Versions''

References

Attribution: *

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, William Aldis 1831 births 1914 deaths Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge English book editors English librarians Burials in Cambridgeshire English philologists

Religious publications

See also

References

External links