author
J. W. (John William) Mackail
1859–1945
A classicist, critic, and public intellectual, this Scottish man of letters moved easily between ancient poetry and the cultural debates of his own time. He is especially remembered for his writing on Virgil and for his influential biography of William Morris.
1 Audiobook
Latin Literature
by J. W. (John William) Mackail
About the author
Born on August 26, 1859, on the Isle of Bute in Scotland, J. W. Mackail studied at Edinburgh University and Balliol College, Oxford. He built a reputation as a gifted scholar and writer, with a lifelong interest in classical literature, especially Virgil, as well as English literary history.
Mackail also played an important role in public education in Britain, serving for many years in the Education Department and later the Board of Education. Alongside that work, he became a well-known literary figure: he was Oxford Professor of Poetry from 1906 to 1911 and later served as President of the British Academy.
For many readers, his most lasting appeal lies in the range of his writing. He could write about the ancient world with clarity and warmth, and he brought the same thoughtful approach to modern figures such as William Morris, whose official biography helped preserve the story of one of the great creative personalities of the age. Mackail died on December 13, 1945.