author
Harry Thurston Peck
1856–1914
A gifted classicist who brought the ancient world to general readers, he was also a prolific editor, critic, and novelist. His career mixed real scholarly influence with public controversy, making him a striking figure in American literary life at the turn of the 20th century.
2 Audiobooks
William Hickling Prescott
by Harry Thurston Peck
Latin Pronunciation: A Short Exposition of the Roman Method
by Harry Thurston Peck
About the author
Born in Stamford, Connecticut, in 1856, Harry Thurston Peck studied at Columbia College and later pursued advanced work in Paris, Berlin, and Rome. He went on to teach at Columbia, where he became a professor of Latin and built a reputation as a lively interpreter of classical literature.
Beyond the classroom, he was an energetic man of letters. Peck edited major reference works including Harper's Dictionary of Classical Literature and Antiquities and helped lead The New International Encyclopedia. He also wrote essays, criticism, fiction, and books meant to make literature and the ancient world more accessible to a broad audience.
His life took a difficult turn after a highly public scandal that led to his dismissal from Columbia in 1910. Even so, his work shows how seriously he believed scholarship should speak to ordinary readers, not only to specialists.