Stephen Leslie

L. Steven was the son of Sir James Stephen, Secretary of State for Colonial Affairs. In his first marriage, he was married to Garriet Marien Thackeray, the daughter of the writer William Thackeray (died in 1875). His daughter from this marriage, Laura, was a mentally ill person. The second marriage was married to Julia Darkworth , who was also previously married and had three children - Henry, Stella and Gerald. In his new marriage, L. Steven and his wife had four children - Vanessa, Toby, Virginia and Adrian . After Julia passed away in 1895, L. Steven fell into a severe depression and refused to leave his office. First, the farm was run by Stella Darkworth, then by Vanessa Stephen. After a difficult quarrel between Vanessa and her father, she maintained contact with him through her sister Virginia. L. Steven died in February 1904 from prostate cancer after an illness that lasted two years.

In 1876, L. Steven publishes one of his most important works: The History of English Thought in the Eighteenth Century , which has not lost its significance until now (the last reprint was published in 2005). He was also the first publisher of the Dictionary of National Biography , for whom he himself wrote a number of biographies of prominent figures in England. Between 1871 and 1882, Sir L. Steven published the journal Cornhill. He was director of the London Library, taking this place after the eminent poet, Sir Alfred Tennyson . L. Steven was a consistent agnostic , outlining the foundations of this doctrine in his essay “ An Agnostic's Apology ”. On June 26, 1902 he received the title of Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath .

During his studies at Cambridge University, L. Steven is actively involved in sports, being an excellent runner and rower. During the so-called "Golden Era of Mountaineering," he was the first to conquer a number of peaks in the Alps in 1858-1864, among them Wildstrubel (September 11, 1858), Bichhorn (August 11, 1859), Schrechhorn (August 16, 1861), Monte Dysgration (August 23, 1862), and others. He climbed to the peaks, as a rule, together with the Swiss conductor Melchior Anderegg . For several years, L. Steven headed the British Alpine Club , being also one of its founders.

• Peaks, passes and glaciers (1862)
• The Playground of Europe (1871)
• Essays on Free Thinking and Plain Speaking (1873)
• The History of English Thought in the Eighteenth Century (1876)
• Hours in a Library (1874-79)
• The Science of Ethics (1882)
• Dictionary of National Biography (1885 ff., Founder and publisher of the first 26 vols.)
• An Agnostic's Apology (1893)
• The Utilitarians (1900)
• Studies of a Biographer (4 volumes, 1898-1902)
• English Literature and Society in the Eighteenth Century . Ford Lectures, (1903, 1904)
• Life of Henry Fawcett (1885)
• Life of Sir James Fitzjames Stephen (1895)
• The Poll Degree from a Third Point of View (1863)
• Social Rights and Duties . Addresses to Ethical Societies 2 vol (1896)
• The "Times" on the American War: A Historical Study (1865)
• Biographies of Samuel Johnson , Alexander Pope , Jonathan Swift , George Eliot and Thomas Hobbes .

• Leslie Stephen, Mark A. Reger, John W. Bicknell (ed.): Selected Letters of Leslie Stephen: 1882-1904: 002 ; Oxford University Press, 1996, ISBN 0-8142-0691-3
• Brian D. Stenfors: Signs of the Times: Leslie Stephen's Letters to The Nation from 1866-1873 (American University Studies Series IV, English Language and Literature) ; Lang, Peter New York, 1996, ISBN 0-8204-1885-4