The Classical Legacy of Gilbert Highet: An In-Depth Retrospect

Gilbert Highet (1906-1978) was one of Columbia University's greatest teachers and in his day the most celebrated classical scholar in America. One may regard his life and career as both extraordinary and controversial. Now, over forty years after his death, a fresh retrospect seems appropriate, as a way of presenting new information about him and evaluating his enduring classical legacy for the twenty-first century reader. This fully documented biographical appreciation of Highet's life and work, capped by fully updated bibliographies of publications by him and about him, offers a long-overdue "official life" of this unique and towering figure.

About the Author :
Robert J. Ball, professor emeritus of Classics, University of Hawaii, received his PhD from Columbia University, where he studied under Gilbert Highet. Professor Ball received an excellence in teaching award from the American Philological Association and the Regents Medal for excellence in teaching from the University of Hawaii. He has published Tibullus the Elegist: A Critical Survey (Göttingen, 1983); The Classical Papers of Gilbert Highet (New York, 1983); The Unpublished Lectures of Gilbert Highet (New York, 1998); Reading Classical Latin: A Reasonable Approach (New York, 2nd ed. 1997); and Reading Classical Latin: The Second Year (New York, 2nd ed. 1998).

Review :
Robert Ball ... has done a useful service ... in providing this 'retrospect,' with its comprehensive bibliography, its overview of Highet's scholarly and pedagogical legacies, and ... its detailed footnotes ... Ball's thorough and meticulous bibliography gives a valuable sense of the scope of Highet's publications. ... Where Ball excels is in his own plentiful footnotes, which are apparently a tribute to his mentor's style.... The Classical Legacy of Gilbert Highet is both a moving tribute and a valuable resource. It's also a vivid reminder of an era and a style of scholarship that seem to have vanished beyond recall. And yet one never knows. Rachel Hadas, Professor of English, Rutgers University at Newark, in Classical Outlook 97, [2022]: 31-34 "Robert J. Ball ... has written in The Classical Legacy of Gilbert Highet: An In-Depth Retrospect a 'documented examination of Highet's life, teaching, and scholarship' (ix) as an admirable and admiring tribute to his former teacher. The book complements The Classical Papers of Gilbert Highet ... and The Unpublished Lectures of Gilbert Highet ... both edited by Ball ... The book needs to be read with Ball's other valuable works on Highet. Over all, Professor Ball, in the course of wide-ranging, painstaking research over many years, has presented, here and in other publications, a rich, impressive tapestry of material, for which admirers of Highet's work must be very grateful." Francis J. Sypher, an independent scholar with a research interest in the history of classical scholarship, in Classical World 115 (2022): 319-20. "Highet's work should not be forgotten. [An] assessment of Highet's work would include situating books like The Classical Tradition (1949) amid contemporary debates about canonicity, the West and whiteness; a history of (reactions to) biographical criticism; an account of popular Classics in its various guises; the role of German and British émigrés in the American academy; Classic(ist)s and the Vietnam war, and a good deal besides. B[all].s work will have pride of place in such a project for its rich documentary material, forming a link to Highet himself." Ben Cartlidge, The Classical Review 71, 2022 "Ball's reviews of Highet's labors on Juvenal, satire and Vergil are annotated heavily. Ball is impartial in presenting the critical observations of those classicists who disapproved of or questioned Highet's biographical approach to Juvenal.... As a classicist and as the biographer, Ball's judgments are authoritative.... Errors in fact are corrected throughout by Ball. He is up to date on all aspects of material on or by Highet. He does not fail to notice the remarks of critics of Highet's scholarly works.... This assessment of him is a helpful contribution to the history of classical scholarship in America." Darrell Sutton, a Biblicist with a research interest in the history of classical scholarship, in The Quarterly Review (2021)