author

Alfred Leach

d. 1892

A little-known Victorian writer whose surviving work ranges from college-themed poetry to a lively treatise on the letter H, he left behind books that feel both scholarly and charmingly eccentric.

1 Audiobook

The letter H, past, present, and future : A treatise, with rules for the silent H, based on modern usage; and notes on WH

The letter H, past, present, and future : A treatise, with rules for the silent H, based on modern usage; and notes on WH

by Alfred Leach

About the author

Very little biographical information about Alfred Leach could be confirmed from reliable online sources, but his published work shows a clear interest in both literature and language. In 1879 he published The Quadrangle by Moonlight; or, Meditations in Marischal College, and Other Poems, which connects him with Marischal College in Aberdeen.

He is also known for The Letter H, Past, Present, and Future, a late 19th-century study of pronunciation and usage. That book suggests a writer who enjoyed close attention to the history and habits of English, and who could turn a narrow subject into something unexpectedly engaging.

A grave record and a medical obituary indicate that an Alfred Leach died in 1892, but the available sources do not make every detail of his life fully clear, so it is safest to treat him as an obscure late-Victorian author whose reputation now rests mainly on these surviving works.