This bibliography is primarily intended for any reader who wishes for some straightforward advice about further reading. Literary and classical scholars who wish to consult specialist literature and who are not satisfied with the sources mentioned in my reference notes would do well to consult the published bibliographies – beginning, perhaps, with A Bibliography of Alfred E. Housman, by T G. Ehrsam, 1941; and A. E. Housman: An Annotated Hand-List by John Sparrow, 1952. For other bibliographical reviews they might also consult the articles by B. F. Fisher IV in the Housman Society Journals for 1974, 1975, 1977 and succeeding years.
Lovers of Housman’s poetry will of course want to buy his Collected Poems which were first published in 1939. For those who are interested, A. E. Housman, Scholar and Poet by Norman Marlow (1958) looks closely at the literary influences on Alfred E. Housman.
As for his prose: there is a good collection of over 700 letters in The Letters of A. E. Housman ed. Henry Maas (1971), and A. E. Housman: Selected Prose ed. John Carter (1962) makes good reading, with a representative selection of witty and forceful writing. The Introductory Lecture (1892), ‘The Application of Thought to Textual Criticism’ (1921) and ‘The Name and Nature of Poetry’ (1933) are reprinted in full; and Carter also includes biographical and ceremonial writings, reviews, classical papers, letters to the press, and the Prefaces to Manilius I, Manilius V, and Juvenal. Housman’s Cambridge Inaugural Lecture of 1911, with notes by John Carter, was published in 1969 as The Confines of Criticism.
There are first-hand accounts of A. E. Housman in the following:
1 A. E. Housman: Recollections by Katharine E. Symons and others 1936. This volume includes, among other things, accounts of Housman’s time at University College London and at Trinity College, Cambridge; and fascinating biographical essays by Housman’s sister Kate, his brother Laurence, and his friend Alfred Pollard.
2 A. E.H. by Laurence Housman, 1937. This contains many unforgettable sketches of Alfred: teaching his siblings a lesson in astronomy; working in the dining-room for his Civil Service exams; explaining the portrait of Moses Jackson, and so on. Laurence draws many general conclusions about his brother’s attitudes, and supplies much detail about, for example, his likings in literature. There are some letters not to be found in Maas, a selection of nonsense verse; a list of the contents of Housman’s four poetic notebooks; and a natal horoscope by Professor Broad.
3 The Unexpected Years by Laurence Housman (1937). This is Laurence’s autobiography, and chiefly valuable on that account; but it also tells us much of what we know about Alfred’s early life. It was, of course, written long after many of the events which it describes; and readers who would like to capture more of the flavour of life at Perry Hall and Fockbury House should try Laurence’s A Modern Antaeus (1901), an autobiographical novel with clear portraits of Laurence, Clemence, and Edward Housman; and an atmospheric description of country life.
4 A. E. Housman: A Sketch by A. S. F. Gow (1936). A brief outline of Housman’s life is followed by a list of his writings and indexes to his classical papers. Gow gives a judicious account of Housman as a classical scholar, and enlivens this with interesting details about Housman’s life at Oxford, and in London. It was as a colleague in the 1920s and 1930s that Gow knew Housman well, and the portrait of Housman as an elderly Cambridge don is, not surprisingly, the most vivid part of this valuable book.
5 Housman 1897–1936 by Grant Richards, 1941. This book contains a wealth of information. The heart of the book is an entertaining account of Housman’s friendship with his publisher Grant Richards, and has a reasonably full description of their business transactions, as well as many delightful anecdotes about their shared love of good food, good wine, and travelling on the Continent. But there are also chapters on ‘Influences’, ‘Housman’s Unclassical Reading’, ‘Parodies’, ‘Eulogy’, ‘Detraction’; a valuable introduction by Alfred’s sister Kate; and numerous Appendices, including biographical recollections by Professor F. W. Oliver and Miss Joan Thomson; and a note on the dates of some of Housman’s poems by Sir Sydney Cockerell. Any reader who is attracted by the stories of gourmandising abroad should try Grant Richards’s entertaining novel Caviare (1912).
6 A Buried Life by Percy Withers, 1940. This tells the story of Housman’s friendship wth Dr Percy Withers from their meeting in 1917 until Housman’s death in 1936. Withers’s story is occasionally soured by his annoyance at never being fully admitted into Housman’s confidence; but; although he does not always seem to grasp the significance of what he is recording, he faithfully records a great deal that is of interest.
Any reader who wishes to compare the present biography with previous biographies of A. E. Housman should look at A. E. Housman: A Divided Life by George L. Watson (1957). The style is archaic, and as the book proceeds Watson seems to like his subject less and less; but he did well with the materials which he had, and you will be surprised how often his conjectures were accurate. As for Mrs Maude Hawkins’s book: A. E. Housman: Man behind a Mask (1958), I do not feel that it contributes a very great deal to our knowledge of Housman, and although some readers may enjoy trying to decide whether some parts of the book are fact or fiction, I personally found it very tiresome.
I should mention that much interesting information about Housman’s ancestors is to be found in Bromsgrove and the Housmans by John Pugh (1974). There are also useful appendices, with verse by A. E. Housman, including ‘Iona’; with many details about Housman’s brothers and sisters; and with letters from Alfred to his sister Kate and his sister-in-law Jeannie; also letters between Edward Wise and Sarah Jane Housman.
Finally, a word about Manilius: anyone who is interested in the subject-matter of Housman’s great work will want to obtain Manilius Astronomica with an English translation by G. P. Goold of University College London (1977). This is a splendid book, with an introduction containing much fascinating information about astrology, and a translation that is poetic enough to inspire a non-classicist with the feeling that Manilius was a better poet than we have been told: ‘Winged fire soared aloft to ethereal reaches and, compassing the rooftops of the starry sky, fashioned the walls of the world with ramparts of flame.’