Products Catalogue Privacy Contact Us                                         A Short Biography of Q
     
 
                  Biography                 Connections                 Influences                 Literary            
   

 
Whilst at Oxford, where he occupied the rooms used earlier by Cardinal Newman, Q became known for both prose and poetry, the latter contained mainly in his volumes “Green Bays” (1893), “Poems and Ballads”(1896) and “The Vigil of Venus and Other Poems” (1912). In 1895 he compiled “The Golden Pomp”, an anthology of works from the 16th and 17th century and a compilation, “English Sonnets” in 1897.

“The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250–1900” followed in 1900 while a later edition (1939) extended the period to 1918 became the leading anthology of English verse for seven decades of the 20th century, sold over half a million copies and is still viewed as an authoritative compilation. There followed “The Oxford Book of Ballads” (1910), “The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse” (1912) and “The Oxford Book of English Prose” (1925).

As Edward VII Professor of English Literature at Cambridge, his early lectures were published as “On the Art of Writing” (1916) and “On the Art of Reading” (1920) and his inaugural lecture was attended by over one thousand men and women.

 

 

 

  

In addition to his literary anthologies Q was an astonishingly prolific novelist and short story writer, publishing twenty two novels including “The Astonishing History of Troy Town” (1888), “The Splendid Spur” (1889), “The Ship of Stars” (1899), and “Hetty Wesley” (1903), the last a fictionalised, sympathetic, biography of one of the sisters of John and Charles Wesley.

He published thirteen collections of short stories and his use of oral history, which ensures that the original events are preserved, in some form, in writing will continue to form the basis of later volumes in this series.