Rossetti, William Michael

Rossetti, William Michael (1829–1919), brother of D. G. Rossetti, is remembered as a man of letters and art critic. He was a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, edited the Germ, and wrote the sonnet that was printed on its cover. His reviews of art exhibitions for the Spectator were published as Fine Art: Chiefly Contemporary (1867). He was responsible for important editions of Blake and Shelley. He edited Whitman in 1868, introducing him to a British public. He translated Dante, and was responsible for encouraging James Thomson (‘B.V.’). He also edited many of his family's papers, letters, and diaries, and wrote memoirs of his brother and his sister Christina (above). His Some Reminiscences (1906) is a valuable biographical source.