Housman Through the Eyes of Others
 

KENNETH A. LOHF

/( / TT D O not know why Americans are so fond of writing—
I and apparently of reading—about personal matters; but
JJL it seems to be a national characteristic, and it makes me
unwilling to meet them, though they are always so kindly and
friendly," writes A. E. Housman on Alarch 4, 1932, to Cyril
Clemens, editor of the Mark Twain Quarterly. The reserved and
enigmatic author of A Shropshire Lad is known to have abhorred
any kind of publicity, so these remarks are not surprising from a
later Victorian who perforce chose to be known only through
his verses and classical Latin scholarship. Little is recorded of his
personal life up to the publication in 1896 of the slender book of
lyrical poems which was to make him justly famous. Any biog¬
raphy of his intellectual growth must almost necessarily be one
more of surmise than of fact, and a reconstruction of his early
life, so important to a complete understanding of his writings,
depends largely on whatever relatives, friends and associates
recall or seem willing to divulge.

By means of the Ward Melville Fund, presented in memory of
Frederick Coykendall, the Columbia University Libraries have
recently purchased a collection of letters by and about A. E.
Housman which promises to give many fresh insights into his
personality and career as a poet. While there are only six letters
from the poet himself, which are characteristically direct and
terse, there is an important group of ninety-four letters from his
brother, Laurence Housman, poet, playwright and artist, most of
which were written in the late 1930's to Cyril Clemens who was
at that time at work on a proposed biography of A. E. Housman.
These contain particularly pertinent comments on his brother's
activities, religious beliefs, reading and unpublished manuscripts