Archer was born in
Perth, the eldest boy of the nine children of
Thomas Archer and his wife Grace,
née Morrison. Thomas relocated frequently seeking employment, and William attended schools in Perth,
Lymington,
Reigate and
Edinburgh. He spent parts of his
boyhood with relatives in
Norway where he became fluent in
Norwegian and became acquainted with the literature of
Henrik Ibsen. Archer won a
bursary to the
University of Edinburgh to study
English literature,
moral and
natural philosophy, and
mathematics. When the family relocated to Australia in 1872, he remained in Scotland as a student. While still at the university he became a leader-writer for the
Edinburgh Evening News in 1875, and after a year visiting his family in Australia, he returned to Edinburgh. Archer was an early friend of
George Bernard Shaw, and arranged for his plays to be translated into
German. An attempted collaboration on a play failed, although Shaw later used their joint ideas for his early work, ''
Widower's Houses''. By Archer's influence Shaw obtained the post of art critic to the periodical
The World, before becoming its music critic. which would assist the development of
SoundSpel. ==Works==