author
William John Courthope
1842–1917
A Victorian literary critic and historian of poetry, he is best remembered for tracing English verse through the life and ideas of each age. His work combines scholarship with a strong belief that literature grows out of a nation’s history.
1 Audiobook
Addison
by William John Courthope
About the author
Born in South Malling, Sussex, in 1842, William John Courthope studied at Harrow and New College, Oxford, where he won both the Newdigate Prize for poetry and the Chancellor’s English Essay. He went on to build a career as a writer, critic, and scholar with a deep interest in how literature reflects public life.
He is best known for A History of English Poetry, a large six-volume study published between 1895 and 1910. Courthope also worked on an edition of Alexander Pope and wrote on political and literary subjects, earning a reputation as a serious, wide-ranging man of letters.
Courthope was recognized in his lifetime as a Fellow of the British Academy, and reference works describe him as an important English literary critic and historian of poetry. He died in 1917.