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Marginal Comment, which attracted keen and widespread interest on
its original publication in 1994, is the remarkable memoir of one
of the most distinguished classical scholars of the modern era. Its
author, Sir Kenneth Dover, whose academic publications included the
pathbreaking book Greek Homosexuality (1978, reissued by Bloomsbury
in 2016), conceived of it as an 'experimental' autobiography -
ruthlessly candid in retracing the full range of the author's
experiences, both private and public, and unflinching in its
attempt to analyse the entanglements between the life of the mind
and the life of the body. Dover's distinguished career involved not
only an influential series of writings about the ancient Greeks but
also a number of prominent positions of leadership, including the
presidencies of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and the British
Academy. It was in those positions that he became involved in
several high-profile controversies, including the blocking of an
honorary degree for Margaret Thatcher from Oxford University, and a
bitter debate in the British Academy over the fellowship of Anthony
Blunt after his exposure as a former Soviet spy. This edition of
Marginal Comment is much more than a reissue: it includes an
introduction which frames the book in relation to its author's life
and work, as well as annotations based in part on materials
originally excluded by Dover but left in his personal papers on
this death. Now newly available, the memoir provides not only the
self-portrait of an exceptional individual but a rich case-study in
the intersections between an intellectual life and its social
contexts.
In the first collection to be devoted to this subject, a
distinguished cast of contributors explores expurgation in both
Greek and Latin authors in ancient and modern times. The major
focus is on the period from the seventeenth to the twentieth
century, with chapters ranging from early Greek lyric and
Aristophanes through Lucretius, Horace, Martial and Catullus to the
expurgation of schoolboy texts, the Loeb Classical Library and the
Penguin Classics. The contributors draw on evidence from the papers
of editors, and on material in publishing archives. The
introduction discusses both the different types of expurgation, and
how it differs from related phenomena such as censorship.
This special Bulletin Supplement contains seven essays which deepen
and extend our knowledge of classical reception and the history of
scholarship. Two of them deal with books: John Davies examines a
little-known life of the tyrant Agathocles of Syracuse published in
the 1660s in which the more recent `tyrant', Oliver Cromwell, is
targeted, while Christian Flow surveys the agendas and self-images
of Latin lexicographers from the Estiennes in the sixteenth century
to the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae, still in progress. Three essays
are devoted to classical journals: Graham Whitaker surveys German
nineteenth-century periodicals in relation to F. A. Wolf's
conception of Alterthumswissenschaft; Ward Briggs gives an account
of The American Journal of Philology and of its founding editor
Basil Gildersleeve; drawing on previously unpublished
correspondence, Christopher Stray describes the controversy between
W. S. Watt and Shackleton Bailey over their editing of Cicero's
letters, as played out in the pages of the Classical Review and the
Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society. Two essays focus
on the classical scholarship of African-Americans: Kenneth Goings
and Eugene O'Connor tell the story of the rise of classical
programmes in US black colleges, together with the funding
difficulties and prejudice that such programmes faced, while
Michele Valerie Ronnick provides a survey of writings on classics
by scholars of African descent from the sixteenth to the twentieth
century. The range of these essays is wide, covering 500 years, and
dealing with scholarly production in Britain, Germany, the USA and
elsewhere.
John Wright's Alma Mater was the first book-length student memoir
to be published in Britain. Yet this trailblazing and revealing
work has never been reprinted since its appearance in 1827. Full of
fascinating detail about college life, it discusses teaching,
examinations and student socialising, including sport, hunting and
recourse to prostitutes. A remarkable story of success and failure,
it often resembles a picaresque novel: after an eventful
undergraduate career, Wright became a hack writer and tutor in
London. His marriage failed, his wife left him, his children went
to the workhouse, and ultimately he was transported for theft to
Tasmania, where he died a premature death. This autobiographical
memoir has often been referred to or quoted by studies of Cambridge
University and the history of mathematics, but the life of its
author has never been satisfactorily explored. This new edition
makes an important source and a vivid historical document available
for the first time. It includes an in-depth exploration of
university and college archives, while Wright's life is also
investigated through outside sources, such as the records of the
Royal Literary Fund and those of court, prison and transportation
authorities. Wright's account, along with the commentary and notes
presented here, offers extraordinary reading for anyone interested
in the history of the University of Cambridge, the teaching of
mathematics in the nineteenth century and the life of Grub Street,
the London literary underworld in the 1820s and 1830s. The more
general reader will also be surprised and entertained by this
topsy-turvy tale recounted with candour and verve.
College-university relationships, the role of examinations, the
politics of curriculum: papers amplify the picture of developments
in Cambridge during the century. It was in the 19th and early 20th
centuries that Cambridge, characterised in the previous century as
a place of indolence and complacency, underwent the changes which
produced the institutional structures which persist today. Foremost
among them was the rise of mathematics as the dominant subject
within the university, with the introduction of the Classical
Tripos in 1824, and Moral and Natural Sciences Triposes in 1851.
Responding to this, Trinity was notable in preparing its students
for honours examinations, which came to seem rather like athletics
competitions, by working them hard at college examinations. The
admission of women and dissenters in the 1860s and 1870s was a
majorchange ushered in by the Royal Commission of 1850, which
finally brought the colleges out of the middle ages and
strengthened the position of the university, at the same time
laying the foundations of the new system of lectures and
supervisions. Contributors: JUNE BARROW-GREEN, MARY BEARD, JOHN R.
GIBBINS, PAULA GOULD, ELISABETH LEEDHAM-GREEN, DAVID McKITTERICK,
JONATHAN SMITH, GILLIAN SUTHERLAND, CHRISTOPHER STRAY, ANDREW
WARWICK, JOHN WILKES.
Charles Astor Bristed (1820-1874) was the favourite grandson of
John Jacob Astor II, of Waldorf-Astoria fame. After gaining a
degree at Yale, Bristed entered Trinity College, Cambridge in 1840,
graduating in 1845. "Five Years in an English University," first
published in 1852 by Putnam in New York, is a richly detailed
account of student life in the Cambridge of the 1840s. The central
rationale for the book, which is as appealing today as it was then,
is that this is pre-eminently a book about an American student at
an English university. The book belongs to a fascinating 19th
century trans-Atlantic publishing genre: travel accounts designed
to describe British culture to Americans and vice-versa.
In this new edition, some substantial additions have been made: the
Foreword and Introduction both help to contextualise the work, and
point to its significance as an important historical source and as
a fascinating memoir of life in Victorian Cambridge; annotation
helps to identify the individuals who appear in Bristed's text; and
an index allows full use to be made of the text for the first time.
The Greek-English Lexicon of Liddell and Scott is one of the most
famous dictionaries in the world, and for the past
century-and-a-half has been a constant and indispensable presence
in teaching, learning, and research on ancient Greek throughout the
English-speaking world and beyond. Despite continuous modification
and updating, it is still recognizably a Victorian creation; at the
same time, however, it carries undiminished authority both for its
account of the Greek language and for its system of organizing and
presenting linguistic data. The present volume brings together
essays by twenty-two scholars on all aspects of the history,
constitution, and problematics of this extraordinary work, enabling
the reader both to understand its complex history and to appreciate
it as a monument to the challenges and pitfalls of classical
scholarship. The contributors have combined a variety of approaches
and methodologies - historical, philological, theoretical - in
order to situate the book within the various disciplines to which
it is relevant, from semantics, lexicography, and historical
linguistics, to literary theory, Victorian studies, and the history
of the book. Paying tribute to the Lexicon's enormous effect on the
evolving theory and practice of lexicography, it also includes a
section looking forward to new developments in dictionary-making in
the digital age, bringing comprehensively up to date the question
of what the future holds for this fascinating and perplexing
monument to the challenges of understanding an ancient language.
This is the first comprehensive account of the life and work of the
distinguished scholar and public figure Gilbert Murray (1866-1957).
Sixteen contributors survey his childhood, his work in the theatre
and in international relations, his Greek scholarship and
contributions on religion and philosophy, his friendships
(including those with Bertrand Russell and A. E. Housman), his long
commitment to the Home University Library, his radio work, and his
involvement with psychic research. The book opens with memoirs by
two of his grandchildren. Two biographies of Murray were published
in the 1980s, but the range of his activities makes it impossible
for a single person to encompass them all adequately. This book,
published 50 years after his death, aims to proved a comprehensive
reassessment of a remarkable man.
This is the first comprehensive account of the life and work of the
distinguished scholar and public figure Gilbert Murray (1866-1957).
Sixteen contributors survey his childhood, his work in the theatre
and in international relations, his Greek scholarship and
contributions on religion and philosophy, his friendships
(including those with Bertrand Russell and A. E. Housman), his long
commitment to the Home University Library, his radio work, and his
involvement with psychic research. The book opens with memoirs by
two of his grandchildren. Two biographies of Murray were published
in the 1980s, but the range of his activities makes it impossible
for a single person to encompass them all adequately. This book,
published 50 years after his death, aims to proved a comprehensive
reassessment of a remarkable man.
The first book to give a general account of the transformation of classics in English schools and universities from being the amateur knowledge of the Victorian gentleman to that of the professional scholar, from an elite social marker to a marginalized academic subject.
This rich collection of essays by an international group of
scholars explores commentaries in many different languages on
ancient Latin and Greek texts. The commentaries discussed range
from the ancient world to the twentieth century. Together, the
chapters contribute to the dialogue between two vibrant and
developing fields of study: the history of scholarship and the
history of the book. The volume pays particular attention to
individual commentaries, national traditions of commentary, the
part played by commentaries in the reception of classical texts,
and the role of printing and publishing. The material form of
commentaries is also considered-including how they are advertised
and their accompanying illustrations-as well as their role in
education. Both academic texts and books written for schools are
surveyed.
Charles Astor Bristed (1820-1874) was the favourite grandson of
John Jacob Astor II, of Waldorf-Astoria fame. After gaining a
degree at Yale, Bristed entered Trinity College, Cambridge in 1840,
graduating in 1845. "Five Years in an English University," first
published in 1852 by Putnam in New York, is a richly detailed
account of student life in the Cambridge of the 1840s. The central
rationale for the book, which is as appealing today as it was then,
is that this is pre-eminently a book about an American student at
an English university. The book belongs to a fascinating 19th
century trans-Atlantic publishing genre: travel accounts designed
to describe British culture to Americans and vice-versa.
In this new edition, some substantial additions have been made: the
Foreword and Introduction both help to contextualise the work, and
point to its significance as an important historical source and as
a fascinating memoir of life in Victorian Cambridge; annotation
helps to identify the individuals who appear in Bristed's text; and
an index allows full use to be made of the text for the first time.
Marginal Comment, which attracted keen and widespread interest on
its original publication in 1994, is the remarkable memoir of one
of the most distinguished classical scholars of the modern era. Its
author, Sir Kenneth Dover, whose academic publications included the
pathbreaking book Greek Homosexuality (1978, reissued by Bloomsbury
in 2016), conceived of it as an 'experimental' autobiography -
ruthlessly candid in retracing the full range of the author's
experiences, both private and public, and unflinching in its
attempt to analyse the entanglements between the life of the mind
and the life of the body. Dover's distinguished career involved not
only an influential series of writings about the ancient Greeks but
also a number of prominent positions of leadership, including the
presidencies of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and the British
Academy. It was in those positions that he became involved in
several high-profile controversies, including the blocking of an
honorary degree for Margaret Thatcher from Oxford University, and a
bitter debate in the British Academy over the fellowship of Anthony
Blunt after his exposure as a former Soviet spy. This edition of
Marginal Comment is much more than a reissue: it includes an
introduction which frames the book in relation to its author's life
and work, as well as annotations based in part on materials
originally excluded by Dover but left in his personal papers on
this death. Now newly available, the memoir provides not only the
self-portrait of an exceptional individual but a rich case-study in
the intersections between an intellectual life and its social
contexts.
Rediscovering E. R. Dodds offers the first comprehensive assessment
of a remarkable classical scholar, who was also a poet with
extensive links to twentieth-century English and Irish literary
culture, the friend of Auden and MacNeice. Dodds was born in
Northern Ireland, but made his name as Regius Professor of Greek at
Oxford from 1936 to 1960, succeeding Gilbert Murray. Before this he
taught at Reading and Birmingham, was active in the Association of
University Teachers, or AUT (of which he became president), and
brought an outsider's perspective to the comfortable and
introspective world of Oxford. His famous book The Greeks and the
Irrational (1951) remains one of the most distinguished and
visionary works of scholarship of its time, though much less
well-known is his long and influential involvement with psychic
research and his work for the reconstruction of German education
after the Second World War. The contributions to this volume seek
to shed light on these less explored areas of Dodds' life and his
significance as perhaps the last classicist to play a significant
role in British literary culture, as well as examining his work
across different areas of scholarship, notably Greek tragedy. A
group of memoirs - one by his pupil and former literary executor,
Donald Russell, and three by younger friends who knew, visited, and
looked after Dodds in his last years - complement this portrait of
the influential scholar and poet, offering a glimpse of the man
behind the legacy.
This unique volume summarizes and reflects the work of a leading
voice in the history of Classics in Britain, bringing together both
previously published articles, now newly revised, and never before
published work. Topics range from the school classroom to the
politics of universities, and from the social uses of classical
knowledge to the publishing of textbooks: although the volume as a
whole maintains a particular focus on the role of books and
journals in the reception of Classics, the chapters also draw on
anecdotal and documentary sources to offer a vivid exploration of
the more obscure corners of the world of nineteenth- and
twentieth-century scholars, teachers, and pupils. The book is
divided into three parts, the first of which illustrates the
utility of comparative analysis of institutions, focusing on Oxford
and Cambridge in particular; the second looks at the transformative
role of printing and publishing, and at the history of the Hellenic
Society (1879) and the Classical Association (1903), in relation to
the changing place of Classics in British society. The third
focuses on pedagogy, examining textbooks and classroom activity and
stressing the dialectical nature of reception, as evidenced by the
resistance of pupils to their teachers' lessons. Engaging and
insightful in isolation, together they offer an expansive and
unparalleled overview of the history and sociology of classical
education and scholarship between 1800 and 2000.
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.
Written to celebrate the 100th birthday of Sir Kenneth Dover, this
volume unites the two major elements in his life: the relatively
private groundbreaking scholarly work he did on aspects of Greek
language and history and the more public-facing roles he assumed in
universities and at the British Academy that led to him being in
the national spotlight later in his career. The contributors to
this volume consider all the major facets of Dover's life and work,
setting them in the context of the burgeoning field of the history
of scholarship. Contributors include students and colleagues of
Dover's at different stages of his career, while others are
themselves leading experts in areas of Classics to which Dover
devoted his energies. Chapters on his academic works and the
controversies he faced in public life are not bland celebrations of
his legacy but critique and assess his life and work, ensuring that
there is much to be learned not just about Dover but also about the
fields he helped to shape.
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