Henry Watson Fowler
| Henry Watson Fowler | |
|---|---|
| Born |
10 March 1858 Tonbridge, Kent, England |
| Died | 26 December 1933 (aged 75) Hinton St George, Somerset, England |
| Occupation | Schoolmaster, lexicographer |
Henry Watson Fowler (/ˈfaʊlə/; 10 March 1858 – 26 December 1933) was an English schoolmaster, lexicographer and commentator on the usage of the English language. He is notable for both A Dictionary of Modern English Usage and his work on the Concise Oxford Dictionary, and was described by The Times as "a lexicographical genius".
After an Oxford education, Fowler was a schoolmaster until his middle age and then worked in London as a freelance writer and journalist, but was not very successful. In partnership with his brother Francis, and beginning in 1906, he began publishing seminal grammar, style and lexicography books. After his brother's death in 1918, he completed the works on which they had collaborated and edited additional works.
Fowler was born on 10 March 1858 in Tonbridge, Kent. His parents, the Rev. Robert Fowler and his wife Caroline, née Watson, were originally from Devon. Robert Fowler was a Cambridge graduate, clergyman, and schoolmaster. At the time of Henry's birth he was teaching mathematics at Tonbridge School, but the family soon moved to nearby Tunbridge Wells. Henry was the eldest child of seven, and his father's early death in 1879 left him to assume a leading role in caring for his younger brothers and sister (Charles, Alexander, [Edward] Seymour, Edith, Arthur, Francis and [Herbert] Samuel).
Henry Fowler spent some time at a boarding school in Germany before enrolling at Rugby School in 1871. He concentrated on Latin and Greek, winning a school prize for his translation into Greek verse of part of Percy Bysshe Shelley's play Prometheus Unbound. He also took part in drama and debating and in his final year served as head of his house, School House. He was greatly inspired by one of his classics teachers, Robert Whitelaw, with whom he kept up a correspondence later in life.
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