William Fraser Rae (1835–1905) was a Scottish journalist and author.
Born inEdinburgh on 3 March 1835, he was the elder son of George Rae and his wife, Catherine Fraser, both of Edinburgh. After education atMoffat Academy andHeidelberg University, he enteredLincoln's Inn as a student on 2 November 1857, and on 30 April 1861 wascalled to the bar. But he then gave up the law for a career as a journalist.[1]
Rae edited for a time about 1860The Reader, and early joined the staff of theDaily News, sympathetic to its liberal politics, as a special correspondent in Canada and the United States. Throat trouble led him to spend time at Austrian health resorts.[1]
In his last years Rae felt his lack of recognition. He reviewed forThe Athenæum, whose editorNorman MacColl was a close friend, and spent his time mainly at theReform Club; he had joined in 1860, and was chairman of the library committee from 1873 till his death. He died on 21 January 1905 at 13 South Parade,Bath, Somerset, and was buried at Bath.[1]
On his articles for theDaily News, Rae based the volumeWestward by Rail (1870; 3rd edit. 1874), sequelColumbia and Canada: Notes on the Great Republic and the New Dominion (1877). There subsequently appearedNewfoundland to Manitoba (1881; with maps) andFacts about Manitoba (1882); reprinted articles fromThe Times, the source also forAustrian Health Resorts, and the Bitter Waters of Hungary (1888; 2nd edit. 1889). InThe Business of Travel (1891) he described the methods ofThomas Cook & Son, the travel agents, and a visit producedEgypt to-day; the First to the Third Khedive (1892).[1]
Rae saw success as the translator ofEdmond About'sHandbook of Social Economy (1872; 2nd edit. 1885) andHippolyte Taine'sNotes on England (1873; 8th edit. 1885). Taking up English political history of the 18th century, in 1874 he brought outWilkes, Sheridan, and Fox: or the Opposition under George III, which echoed the style ofThomas Babington Macaulay. On the question of theidentity of Junius, he wroteoften inThe Athenæum from 1888, for over the decade: withCharles Wentworth Dilke and theAthenæum tradition, he rejected the identification of Junius withSir Philip Francis.[1]
With the aid ofLord Dufferin and others connected with the family, Rae researchedRichard Brinsley Sheridan and tried to improve his reputation.Sheridan, a Biography (2 vols. 1896) dispelled some rumours, but failed as a whitewash. In 1902 he publishedSheridan's Plays, now printed as he wrote them, withA Journey to Bath, an unpublished comedy byFrances Sheridan.[1]
Rae wrote the preface to Charles W. Vincent'sCatalogue of the Library of the Reform Club (1883; 2nd and revised edit. 1894), and contributed to theDictionary of National Biography. He published anonymously in 1873Men of the Third Republic, and translatedEnglish Portraits, fromSainte-Beuve, in 1875. In fiction, Rae wrotethree-volume novels:Miss Bayle's Romance (1887), followed byA Modern Brigand (1888),Maygrove (1890), andAn American Duchess (1891).[1]
Rae married, on 29 August 1860, Sara Eliza, second daughter of James Fordati of the Isle of Man and London. She died atFranzensbad, where Rae and herself were frequent autumn visitors, on 29 August 1902; she left two daughters.[1]
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Attribution
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1912). "Rae, William Fraser".Dictionary of National Biography (2nd supplement). Vol. 3. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
