A.E. Housman: Hero of the Hidden Life

A.E. Housman: Hero of the Hidden Life (Boydell Press, 2018)

A.E. Housman (1859-1936) was both a celebrated poet and the foremost classicist of his day. This biography reveals a man of many facets, one companionable in small groups, generous to a fault, and always on the lookout for humour and fun; a master of English prose; a witty and compelling after-dinner speaker; an occasional writer of nonsense verse; a frequenter of the music hall; an intrepid early traveller by air; and a connoisseur of food and wine. Drawing on Housman’s published letters and on 81 significant new finds, Edgar Vincent conjures up a new Housman, created out of his reactions to the events of his life as he experienced them. It weaves together his scholarly life and the biographical elements in his poetry to examine his emotional and sexual needs with dispassion and empathy and to uncover his hidden sensibilities and creative world.

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