Selected Prose

Housman was not only a poet but also a master of a highly individual prose style. Here is a selection of Housman's writings, both scholarly and general, gathered from periodicals and other out-of-the-way sources, which decisively confirms his reputation as a prose stylist. The prefaces, the adversaria and the reviews, in particular, give even the layman an idea of the precision and the penetration of exact scholarship. Housman's comments and judgments on other men illuminated his own nature: withdrawn, austere, even crusty, yet gentle with the unassuming; ruthless in exposure of arrogance and pretension.