A. E. Housman

Alfred Edward Housman (1859–1936) was an English classical scholar and poet. Born in Fockbury, Worcestershire, he studied at St John’s College, Oxford, where he developed a lasting commitment to Latin textual criticism. After working in London at the Patent Office, he became Professor of Latin at University College London (1892–1911) and later Kennedy Professor of Latin at the University of Cambridge (1911–1936). Housman’s scholarship, especially on the Roman poet Manilius, earned international respect. His poetry is best known through *A Shropshire Lad* (1896), whose spare, musical lyrics explore youth, loss, and mortality.