author
H. V. (Howard Vernon) Canter
1873–1942
A self-made classicist who left school young, worked his way back into education, and built a respected academic career in Greek and Latin studies. His writing is especially remembered for its sharp attention to rhetoric, poetry, and Roman literature.
1 Audiobook
The Defeat of Varus and the German Frontier Policy of Augustus
by W. A. (William Abbott) Oldfather, H. V. (Howard Vernon) Canter
About the author
Born in Winchester, Virginia, in 1873, Howard Vernon Canter took an unusually hard road into scholarship. According to the Rutgers database of classical scholars, he left school at 12, worked as a store clerk until 19, then resumed his studies, eventually earning an A.B. from Washington & Lee University in 1896 and a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins in 1904.
Canter taught at Notre Dame of Maryland and the University of Missouri before spending most of his career at the University of Illinois, where he served both as a classics professor and as assistant dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He published widely on Greek and Latin literature, including studies of Livy, Seneca, Cicero, and poetic rhetoric; among his best-known works are Rhetorical Elements in the Tragedies of Seneca and essays such as "The Paraclausithyron as a Literary Theme" and "The Figure Adynaton in Greek and Latin Poetry."
He also collaborated on major scholarly reference tools, especially Latin word indexes prepared with fellow classicists such as W. A. Oldfather. During World War I, he took leave from the university to serve as a YMCA regional director with the 7th Italian Army, later receiving a gold service medal from the Italian government. He died in Baltimore in 1942.