Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/603

 MASSON, DAVID (1822–1907), biographer and editor, born at Aberdeen on 2 Doc. 1822, was son of William Masson, stonecutter in that city, and Sarah Mather, his wife. After education at the grammar school of Aberdeen (1831–5) under [q. v.], he matriculated in October 1835 at Marischal College and Aberdeen University, and at the close of his course, in April 1839, took the first place among the Masters of Arts of his year. With the intention of qualifying for the ministry of the Church of Scotland, he proceeded to Edinburgh and spent three years (1839–42) in the divinity hall of the university, where Dr. [q. v.] was one of his teachers; but towards the close of his curriculum, during the stir of the Disruption, he resolved not to enter the church. He returned to Aberdeen and undertook (1842–4) the editorship of a weekly journal, 'The Banner.' In the summer of 1843 he visited London for the first time as the guest of his fellow-townsman [q. v. Suppl. II], and made the acquaintance of Mrs. Carlyle. In the following year, during his second visit to London, he met [q. v.], who introduced him to the editor of 'Fraser's Magazine,' in which his first article appeared in that year. From 1844 to 1847 he was engaged in Edinburgh on the staff of W. and R. Chambers, publishers, in the preparation of their Miscellanies and Educational Series. A little book on the history of Rome, written in 1847, was published in 1848; and in the same year he brought out, anonymously, another on ancient history. Other text-books on mediæval history (1855) and modern history (1856) followed after his direct association with the firm of Chambers had come to an end.

In 1847 Masson removed to London and began to contribute to the magazines and reviews, including 'Fraser's,' the 'Quarterly,' the 'Westminster,' the 'Leader,' and the 'North British,' and to the 'Encyclopædia Britannica.' He enjoyed the friendship of the Carlyles, and enlarged his circle of literary acquaintances through his membership of 'Our Club,' where his companions included Thackeray, Douglas Jerrold, Charles Knight, Mark Lemon, Dr. Doran, Peter Cunningham, and others. In these early years of hard work he found relaxation with the corps of the London Scottish volunteers; and in 1851–2 he acted as secretary of the London Society of the Friends of Italy.

In 1853, the year of his marriage, he was appointed professor of English literature in University College, London, in succession to [q. v.]; and in 1856 he published a volume of 'Essays, Biographical and Critical: Chiefly on English Poets.' This was followed in 1859 by his 'British Novelists and their Styles,' and by the first volume of an extensive 'Life of Milton, narrated in connection with the Political, Ecclesiastical, and literary History of his Time.' On the latter work (1859–80, 6 vols.) his reputation as a biographer and historian chiefly rests, and there must be few rivals in this genre in any literature so painstaking and thorough in the recovery of the setting of a great career. The book was received with general approbation, and such criticism as has suggested that the reader cannot see the poet in the crowd of contemporary interests has misjudged the author's deliberate purpose. The book remains the standard authority. To the labours of this undertaking Masson added, towards the close of 1858, the task of starting and editing a new magazine for Alexander Macmillan, the first number of which appeared on 1 Nov. 1859, two months before Thackeray inaugurated the rival 'Cornhill.' Its title, 'Macmillan's Magazine,' was 'Editor David's' suggestion, and was accepted by the publisher after a long friendly battle for the name 'The Round Table.' Shortly before the issue of the first number, Masson and Macmillan spent three days in September 1859 with Tennyson in the Isle of Wight, and on the return journey they visited Kingsley at Eversley. Masson continued to edit the 'Magazine' with success till 1867, when his place was taken by Sir [q. v. Suppl. I]. In the autumn of 1863 he undertook, in addition, the editorship of the short-lived 'Reader.' Two years later he published a volume of essays entitled 'Recent British Philosophy.'

On the death of [q. v.] in 1865, Masson was appointed professor of rhetoric and English literature in the university of Edinburgh; and from that date to the close he resided in Edinburgh. There he completed his 'Life of Milton'; edited the works of 'Goldsmith' (1869), 'Milton' (1874), and 'De Quincey' (1889–90); wrote an exhaustive biography of 'Drummond of Hawthornden' (1873); and recast and reissued the matter of the essays of 1856, with additions, in three separate volumes entitled 'Wordsworth, Shelley, and Keats,' 'The Three Devils,' and 'Chatterton' (1874). To the