Short description:

First published in 1992, A. E. Housman brings together significant critical response to the poetry of A.E. Housman from the time of his writing to 1951. It contains 94 items?articles, reviews, and comments which provide an accurate picture of how Housman the poet was seen during his lifetime and for some years beyond it.

Long description:

First published in 1992, A. E. Housman: The Critical Heritage brings together the most important and significant critical response to the poetry of A.E. Housman from the time of his writing to 1951. It contains ninety-four items?articles, reviews, and comments which provide an accurate picture of how Housman the poet was seen during his lifetime and for some years beyond it. The picture which emerges is of a poet not only of popular appeal, but of great literary distinction, who was admired by the majority of reviewers and critics who discussed his work. Among those quoted are J.B. Priestley, Edmund Gosse, Cyril Connolly, T.S. Eliot, George Orwell, Cleanth Brooke, Stephen Spender, John Sparrow, and E.M. Forster.

Table of Contents:

A SHROPSHIRE LAD (1896)

1. THOMAS HUMPHRY WARD, unsigned notice, The Times, March 1896

2. HUBERT BLAND, unsigned review, New Age, April 1896

3 O.O., review, Sketch, April 1896

4. 'CLAUDIUS CLEAR' (WILLIAM ROBERTSON NICOLL), British Weekly, April 1896

5. A.M. (ANNIE MACDONELL?), review, Bookman, June 1896

6 Unsigned review, Guardian, June 1896

7. NORMAN GALE, review, Academy, July 1896

8. LOUISE IMOGEN GUINEY, review, Chap-Book (Chicago), February 1897

9. Unsigned notice, Literary World (Boston), April 1897

10. Unsigned notice, Citizen (Philadelphia), November 1897

A SHROPSHIRE LAD (1898)

11. WILLIAM ARCHER, review, Fortnightly Review, August 1898

12. Unsigned notice, Outlook, September 1898

13. Unsigned review, Academy, October 1898

14. Unsigned notice, Bookman (London), October 1898

I5. Unsigned notice, Athenaeum, October 1898

16. 'The Funereal Muse', Literature, October 1898

17. Unsigned review, Saturday Review (London), November 1898

18. CHARLES SORLEY on A Shropshire Lad, May 1913

19. JAMES ELROY FLECKER, from 'The New Poetry and Mr. Housman's "Shropshire Lad"', undated, pre-1915

20. HOLBROOK JACKSON, 'The Poetry of A.E. Housman', To-day, August 1919

21. HAROLD MONRO on Housman, 1920

LAST POEMS (1922)

22. 'The "Shropshire Lad" again', Times Literary Supplement, October 1922

23. EDMUND GOSSE, 'The Shropshire Lad', Sunday Times, October 1922

24. D.C.T., 'Professor Housman's Last Poems', Cambridge Review, October 1922

25. B.S., review, Manchester Guardian Weekly, November 1922

26. J.C. SQUIRE, review, London Mercury, November 1922

27. AMABEL WILLIAMS-ELLIS, review, Spectator, November 1922

28. Unsigned notice, English Review, December 1922

29. JOHN FREEMAN, 'Hail and Farewell', Bookman (London), December 1922

30. Unsigned review, Outlook, December 1922

31. LEE WILSON DODD, The Stoic Muse', Literary Review, December 1922

32.  J.B. PRIESTLEY, 'The Poetry of A.E. Housman', London Mercury, December 1922

33. H.J. DAVIS, 'An English Poet', Canadian Forum, January 1923

34. STEWART MARSH ELLIS, review, Fortnightly Review, January 1923

35. G.H.C. (GEORGE HERBERT CLARKE), review, Sewanee Review, January 1923

36. WALLACE B. NICHOLS, 'Mr. A.E. Housman's Return', Poetry Review, January-February 1923

37. CLEMENT WOOD, ?The Shropshire Corydon: Opus lI?, Nation (New York), February 1923

38. WILLIAM A. NORRIS, review, New Republic, February, 1923

39. WILLIAM ROSE BENÉT, 'The Book of the Month: A.E. Housman's "Last Poems"', Bookman (New York), March 1923

40. O.W. FIRKINS, 'Living Verse', Yale Review, July 1923

41. EDWARD SAPIR, 'Mr. Housman's Last Poems', Dial, August 1923

42. F.L. LUCAS, 'Few, but Roses', New Statesman and Nation, October 1923

43.  J.C. SQUIRE, 'Mr. A.E. Housman', 1923

44.  J.F. MACDONALD, from 'The Poetry of A.E. Housman', Queen's Quarterly, Fall 1923

45.  OSBERT BURDETT on Housman, 1925

46.  IOLO WILLIAMS on Housman, 1927

47.  H.W. GARROD, 'Mr. A.E. Housman', 1929

48.  CHARLES WILLIAMS, 'A.E. Housman', 1930

THE NAME AND NATURE OF POETRY (1933)

49.  LASCELLES ABER CROMBIE, 'A.E. Housman on Poetry', Manchester Guardian Weekly, June 1933

50.  G.W. STONIER, 'Professor Housman on Poetry', New Statesman and Nation, June 1933

51. J.C. SQUIRE, editorial note, London Mercury, June 1933

52. D.W. HARDING and L.C. KNIGHTS, 'Flank-Rubbing and Criticism', Scrutiny, September 1933

53. S. GORLEY PUTT, review, Scrutiny, September 1933

54 R.R. (RICHARD REES), review, Adelphi, July 1933

55. BASIL DAVENPORT, 'The Terrier and the Rat', Saturday Review of Literature (New York), July 1933

56. KARL SCHRIFTGEISSER, from a review, Boston Evening Transcript, July 1933

57. R.P., 'Exponent of Pure Poetry', Christian Science Monitor, July 1933

58. T.S. ELIOT, review, Criterion, October 1933

59. EDITH SITWELL on Housman, 1934

60. CHAUNCY BREWSTER TINKER, 'Housman's Poetry', Yale Review, September 1935

OBITUARY COMMENTS (1936)

61. From 'Death of Professor A.E. Housman', Manchester Guardian Weekly, May 1936

62. E. L. WOODWARD, 'Les Lauriers Sont Coupés', Oxford Magazine, May 1936

63. F. L. LUCAS, 'Mithridates: The Poetry of A.E. Housman', Cambridge Review, May 1936

64. CYRIL CONNOLLY on Housman, New Statesman, May 1936

65. RICHARD REES, 'The Modernism of Housman', Adelphi,  June 1936

66. JOHN ERSKINE, 'What is Contemporary Poetry?' North American Review, Autumn 1936

MORE POEMS (1936)

67. RAYMOND MORTIMER, 'Housman Relics', New Statesman and Nation, October 1936

68. IVOR BROWN, 'Poet and Scholar: the Last of the "Shropshire Lad"', Observer, October 1936

69. PETER MONRO JACK, 'The Shropshire Lad's Farewell: A Distinguished Final Volume by A.E. Housman', New York Times Book Review, October 1936

70. JOHN SPARROW, 'A.E. Housman', Spectator, October 1936

71. CONRAD AIKEN, 'A.E. Housman', New Republic, November 1936

72. EM. FORSTER, 'Ancient and Modern', Listener, November 1936

73. EDWIN MUIR, review, London Mercury, November 1936

74. GEOFFREY GRIGSON, review, New Verse, Christmas 1936

75. ROBERT HILLYER, review, Atlantic Monthly, December 1936

76. WILLIAM EMPSON, 'Foundations of Despair', Poetry (Chicago), January 1937

77. EARLE BIRNEY, 'Swan Song', Canadian Forum, January 1937

78. JACOB BRONOWSKI, review, Criterion, April 1937

79. EUGENE DAVIDSON, 'The Span of Housman's Poetry', Yale Review, Winter 1937

80. NEVILE WATTS, 'The Poetry of A.E. Housman', Dublin Review, January 1937

81. LOUIS KRONENBERGER, 'A Note on A.E. Housman', Nation (New York), December 1937

82. LAWRENCE LEIGHTON, 'One View of Housman', Poetry (Chicago), May 1938

83. CARL and MARK VAN DOREN, 'A.E. Housman', 1939

COLLECTED POEMS (1939, London; 1940, New York)

84. BONAMY DOBRÉE, 'The Complete Housman', Spectator, January, 1940

85. PETER MONRO JACK, 'A.E. Housman's Lasting Art', New York Times Book Review, March 1940

86. STEPHEN SPENDER, 'The Essential Housman', Horizon, April 1940

87. LOUIS MACNEICE, review, New Republic, April 1940

88.  JOHN PEALE BISHOP, 'The Poetry of A.E. Housman', Poetry (Chicago), June 1940

89. MORTON DAUWEN ZABEL, 'The Whole of Housman', Nation (New York), June 1940

90.BENJAMIN GILBERT BROOKS, 'A.E. Housman's Collected Poetry', Nineteenth Century, July 1940

91. CLEANTH BROOKS, 'The Whole of Housman', Kenyon Review, Winter 1941

92. GEORGE OR WELL on Housman, 1940

TWO POST-WAR SUMMINGS-UP

93. JOHN SPARROW, '"A Shropshire Lad" at Fifty', Times Literary Supplement, March 1946

94. JOHN CROWE RANSOM places Housman, 1951