Stephen, Leslie

Leslie Stephen was born in Kensington Gore, London. His family were members of the Clapham Sect, a branch of late nineteenth-century evangelical Christianity. Stephen took Anglican orders in 1859, but a later crisis of faith led to him formally renounce them in 1875. He was educated at Eton College, King's College, Cambridge and Trinity Hall, where he took up a fellowship in 1854, which he resigned in 1867. In that same year he married Harriet (Minny) Thackeray; she died in 1875 from eclampsia while pregnant with their first child.

From 1871 to 1882 Stephen edited the Cornhill Magazine, where he published most of his literary criticism. Stephen encouraged the careers of Thomas Hardy, Robert Louis Stevenson, Edmund Gosse and Henry James. In addition, Stephen published two volumes of 'The History of English Thought in the Eighteenth Century' (1876 and 1881) and 'The Science of Ethics' (1882). Stephen was an agnostic and humanist, publishing an essay, 'An Agnostic's Apology' in 1893. Stephen was a keen mountaineer during the Golden Age of Alpinism. Stephen was President of the Alpine Club from 1865 to 1868 and edited their journal between 1868 and 1872.

In 1878 Stephen married Julia Duckworth. Together they had four children, including the writer Virginia Woolf and the artist Vanessa Bell. Julia died of influenza in 1895.

Fellow of Trinity Hall, 1854-1867, during which time he acted as Bursar.