A New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice and Nominated for the 2017 PEN/Bograd Weld Prize for Biography A captivating exploration of A. E. Housman and the influence of his particular brand of Englishness A. E. Housman’s A Shropshire Lad made little impression when it was first published in 1896 but has since become one of the best-loved volumes of poetry in the English language. Its evocation of the English coun - tryside, thwarted love, and a yearning for things lost is as potent today as it was more than a century ago, and the book has never been out of print. In Housman Country, Peter Parker explores the lives of A. E. Housman and his most famous book, and in doing so shows how A Shropshire Lad has permeated English life and culture since its publication. The poems were taken to war by soldiers who wanted to carry England in their pockets, were adapted by composers trying to create a new kind of English music, and have influ - enced poetry, fiction, music, and drama right up to the present day. Everyone has a personal “land of lost content” with “blue remembered hills,” and Housman has been a tangible and far-reaching presence in a startling range of work, from the war poets and Ralph Vaughan Williams to Inspector Morse and Morrissey. Housman Country is a vivid exploration of England and Englishness, in which Parker maps out terrain that is as historical and emotional as it is topographical.

In this series a contemporary poet selects and introduces another poet of a different generation whom they have particularly admired. This selection of A.E. Housman poems are selected by Alan Hollinghurst.

A. E. Housman was one of the best-loved poets of his day, whose poems conjure up a potent and idyllic rural world imbued with a poignant sense of loss. They are expressed in simple rhythms, yet show a fine ear for the subtleties of metre and alliteration. His scope is wide - ranging from religious doubt to intense nostalgia for the countryside. This volume brings together 'A Shropshire Lad' (1896) and 'Last Poems' (1922), along with the posthumous selections 'More Poems' and 'Additional Poems', and three translations of extracts from Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides that display his mastery of Classical literature.

This is a new study and interpretation of the much loved poet, A. E. Housman, best known for his poem A Shropshire Lad. But there was so much more to this enigmatic person, our greatest classicist who penned some of the loveliest poetry ever written. In this book, Waine investigates Housman's enigmatic and brilliant mind, and shows, with empathy and wit, how he located a complicated path on which to walk and flourish, despite the many brambles that lay on all sides of his lonely journey. W.H. Auden famously described A.E. Housman as keeping 'tears like dirty postcards in a drawer'. An element of mystery has always surrounded the life of this intensely private man. In his quirky but compelling account of Housman's development into both a renowned classical scholar (even after failing his undergraduate degree in Classics!) and the best selling author of A Shropshire Lad, Peter Waine casts fresh light on the oddities and obsessions that resulted in the rebarbative Housman 'persona', as well as in some of the most beautiful and moving lyrics in the English language. Richly detailed and elegantly written, this is a fascinating guide to the work of a poet whose admirers ranged from Oscar Wilde to Randall Jarrell. Book jacket.

This is a collection of essays which shows that academic interest in Housman is still strong. There are contributions from the UK, the USA and Israel focusing on close readings, historical and bibliographical studies, and comparisons with other writers. Housman is seen as man and poet, classicist and inspiration for song-writers. Not since 1968, when Christopher Ricks edited the volume A.E. Housman: A Collection of Critical Essays , has there been such a wide-ranging assessment of the life and work of a great classical scholar and popular poet.