A.E. Housman (1859-1936) was a man of many apparent contradictions, most of which remain unresolved 150 years after his birth. At once a deeply emotive lyric poet and a precise and dedicated classical scholar, he achieved fame in both of these diverse disciplines. Although his poetic legacy has received much scholarly analysis, and yet more attention has been devoted to reconstructing his private life, no previous work has focused on Housman the classical scholar; yet it is upon scholarship that Housman most wished to leave his mark.
This timely collection of papers by leading scholars reassesses the breadth and significance of Housman's contribution to classical scholarship in both his published and unpublished writings, and discusses how his mantle has been passed on to later generations of classicists.
Table of Contents:
Preface
List of Contributors
Abbreviations
Introduction - C.A. Stray
Part I. Housman the Scholar
1. Housman and Propertius - S.J. Heyworth
2. Housman’s Manilius - E. Courtney
3. Housman’s Juvenal - R.G.M. Nisbet
4. Housman, Lucan and Fraenkel - S.P. Oakley
5. Housman and Ovid’s Ibis - G.D. Williams
6. Housman on Metre and Prosody - D.J. Butterfield
7. Dust and Fudge: manuscripts in Housman’s generation - M.D. Reeve
Part II. Housman’s Scholarly Environment
8. Housman and R.C. Jebb: intellectual styles and the politics of metre - C.A. Stray
About the Author :
Editors: David Butterfield is W.H.D. Rouse Research Fellow, Christ's College, Cambridge, UK. Christopher Stray is Honorary Research Fellow, University of Swansea, and Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Classics, University of London , UK.
Contributors: D.J. Butterfield, Christ's College, Cambridge; E. Courtney, University of Virginia; J. Diggle, Queens' College, Cambridge; S.J. Heyworth, Wadham College, Oxford; N. Hopkinson, Trinity College, Cambridge; E.J. Kenney, Peterhouse, Cambridge; J.H.C. Leach, Pembroke College, Oxford; L. Lehnus, University of Milan; G. Luck, Johns Hopkins University; R.G.M. Nisbet, Corpus Christi College, Oxford; S.P. Oakley, Emmanuel College, Cambridge; M.D. Reeve, Pembroke College, Cambridge; C.A. Stray, Swansea; G.D. Williams, Columbia University.
Review :
Butterfield, Stray, et al. have done an excellent job of restoring Housman to his proper place in the history of classical scholarship and of reminding us that there is more to Housman than his poetry.
... Toutes ces raisons, auxquelles j'ajoute la superbe photographie de la quatrième de couverture qui représente Housman à quarante ans, avec un regard rayonnant, font que je recommande cet ouvrage.
...the essays provide a window into the processes of scholarship past and present, including the tensions between search for truth and the human foibles that condition its definition and communication ... The collection should provoke serious thought among current practitioners about the differences between the academic environments of Housman, his immediate successors and those of today.
