H. L. (Herbert Lord) Havell

Born in Reading in 1863, Herbert Lord Havell was an English classicist and writer remembered for making the literature and history of the ancient world approachable to ordinary readers. He wrote and adapted works drawn from Greek and Roman sources, including Stories from the Odyssey, Stories from the Iliad, and Stories from Thucydides.

Havell also worked on more scholarly classical material, including an edition of On the Sublime associated with Longinus. His range suggests a writer comfortable both with serious classical study and with clear retellings aimed at a broader audience.

He died in Oxford in 1913. One of his best-known historical works, Republican Rome, appeared posthumously in 1914 and remained associated with his name afterward.