William John Courthope

William John Courthope was an English writer, literary historian, and critic born in 1842 and died in 1917. Available biographical sources describe him as educated at Harrow and Oxford, and as a scholar closely connected with English literary study in the late Victorian and Edwardian period.

He is most often remembered for A History of English Poetry, an ambitious survey of the tradition over several volumes. He also wrote studies of major eighteenth-century figures, including Addison and Pope, which helped establish his reputation as a careful and learned critic.

Courthope’s work belongs to a period when literary history was often written on a grand scale, aiming to connect authors, politics, and national culture. That makes his books especially interesting for listeners who enjoy older criticism as well as the literature it set out to explain.