| Abstrakt: |
English poet and critic. Despite the title of his most famous volume, Alfred Edward Housman (HOW-smuhn) came not from Shropshire but from Fockbury in the neighboring county of Worcestershire. He was born the son of Edward Housman, a solicitor and the elder brother of the author and artist Laurence Housman. A. E. Housman was educated at St. John’s College, Oxford, between 1877 and 1881, but when he failed his examination in Greats he returned to his home in humiliation. He went back to Oxford in the fall of 1881, working as a tutor in Greek and Latin and studying for the Civil Service Examination. When he left Oxford the following year with a lowly “pass” degree, he obtained a position in the Patent Office in London and devoted his evenings to classical studies. In 1888 he published a series of brilliant scholarly articles that won him an international reputation and the chair in Latin at University College, London, a position he retained until 1911, when he was elected Kennedy Professor of Latin at Cambridge University and a fellow of Trinity College. There he remained for the rest of his life. |
