Max Beerbohm was born in London in 1873. As a young man, he gained a reputation as a dandy and wit, and started publishing essays in magazines such as the notorious Yellow Book. He dropped out of Oxford and soon published his first book. Zuleika Dobson (1911) was his only novel, but he was also famous as a critic and caricaturist. In 1910, he moved to Italy where he remained until his death in 1956.