A. E. Housman
The author of “A Shropshire Lad” combined exacting Latin scholarship with poems about love and loss. His love for Moses Jackson remained largely private.
Alfred Edward Housman was born in Fockbury, Worcestershire, in 1859. The eldest of seven children, he won a scholarship to St John's College, Oxford, to study classics. In 1881, despite his gifts as a scholar, he failed his final examinations. He later obtained a pass degree and went to work at the Patent Office in London.
Outside office hours, Housman studied Greek and Latin texts and published scholarly articles. They established a reputation that brought him the chair of Latin at University College London in 1892. In 1911, he moved to Cambridge. His edition of the Roman poet Manilius became a major achievement of classical scholarship.
“A Shropshire Lad”, published in 1896, gave him a second life as a poet. Its short lyrics return to young men, the passing of time, unfulfilled love and early death. Many were set to music, carrying his words to audiences far beyond readers of poetry.
At Oxford, Housman had fallen in love with his friend Moses Jackson, who did not return his feelings. Their friendship endured, but Housman kept his sexuality largely out of public view. Poems published after his death speak more openly of love between men and the punishment it could bring. His brother Laurence preserved this part of his story in an account released only decades later. Housman died in Cambridge in 1936.