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.
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
Biography
Philip Gardner, Emeritus Professor of English, Memorial University of Newfoundland, was born in Liverpool in 1936, read English at King's College, Cambridge and obtained his doctorate at Liverpool University. He is the author of critical studies of Norman Nicholson (1974), Kingsley Amis (1981), and co-author of The God Approached: A Commentary on the Poems of William Empson (1978). He has edited E.M. Forster: The Critical Heritage (1973); E.M. Forster's Commonplace Book (1985); the Abinger edition of Maurice (1999); and E.M. Forster's Diaries and Journals (three volumes, 2011). In addition to many scholarly articles, he has published six collections of poetry. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
