A. E. Housman: A Sketch

by Andrew Sydenham Farrar Gow

This early study of A. E. Housman, first published in October 1936 just months after Housman's death, was written by his friend and colleague at Trinity College, Cambridge, A. S. F. Gow. As well as offering a skilful and illuminating portrait of Housman's life and character, Gow's study importantly draws together a list of Housman's collected papers - a list which was revised by Housman himself and included citations to publications that he expressly desired should not be reprinted or collected. This rare, contemporary account of Housman's life and works forms an indispensable resource for both scholars and general readers alike.

156 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1972

Reviews

[Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an enormous amount of fun, in its way. Gow was a colleague of Housman's at Cambridge. His memoir is a dutiful but chaste appreciation by a friend and admirer who was probably as close as one could get to the frequently lonely Housman. Much of the text consists of a list of Housman's writings as well, which would come in handy for a genuine classics scholar (which I ain't). The best parts of this are Gow's quotes from Housman's scholarly work. A.E. could be savage with those whose work he dismissed; fortunately he couched those dismissals in wonderfully acid, witty prose. Gow gives a generous heaping of this stuff without diminishing one's sense of Housman's character as a scholar. That is to say, Housman's hit jobs arose out of scholarly punctilio rather than malice or a desire to indulge in character assassination. It was interesting to read how he eventually befriended as men some of the same scholarly rivals he destroyed in print. Whets the appetite for a proper biography, which this has no pretensions to being.