THOMAS BOWDLER

• Born: July 11, 1754
• Died: February 24, 1825
• Nationality: British
• Profession: Physician, Editor

Thomas Bowdler, LRCP, FRS was an English doctor best known for publishing The Family Shakespeare, an expurgated edition of William Shakespeare's plays. The work, edited by his sister Henrietta Maria Bowdler, was intended to provide a version of Shakespeare that was more appropriate than the original for 19th-century women and children. Bowdler also published several other works, some reflecting his interest in and knowledge of continental Europe. Bowdler's last work was an expurgated version of Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, published posthumously in 1826 under the supervision of his nephew and biographer, Thomas Bowdler the Younger.