Lesslie Hall

John Lesslie Hall, who wrote as J. Lesslie Hall, was an American philologist and translator. He is best known for his 1892 verse translation of Beowulf. He spent nearly forty years on the faculty of William and Mary, where he was professor of English and history, head of the English department and dean of the faculty, and he was one of the Seven Wise Men who helped revive the college after it closed in the early 1880s. His portrait hangs in the Swem Library.