A Shropshire Lad is a collection of sixty-three poems by the English poet Alfred Edward Housman, published in 1896. Selling slowly at first, it then rapidly grew in popularity, particularly among young readers. Composers began setting the poems to music less than ten years after their first appearance, and many parodists have satirised Housman's themes and poetic style.
Byron Cottage in Highgate, where Housman wrote A Shropshire Lad
"On the Teme", one of William Hyde's coloured illustrations for A Shropshire Lad (1908)
The first illustrated edition of A Shropshire Lad (1908), cover design by William Hyde
The Blue Plaque on Byron Cottage
Alfred Edward Housman was an English classical scholar and poet. After an initially poor performance while at university, he took employment as a clerk in London and established his academic reputation by publishing as a private scholar at first. Later Housman was appointed Professor of Latin at University College London and then at the University of Cambridge. He is now acknowledged as one of the foremost classicists of his age and has been ranked as one of the greatest scholars of any time. His editions of Juvenal, Manilius, and Lucan are still considered authoritative.
A. E. Housman
Valley House, Housman's birthplace
The site of the 17th-century Fockbury House (later known as The Clock House). Home of Housman from 1873 to 1878
Home of Housman from 1860 to 1873 and again from 1878 to 1882. His younger brother Laurence was born here in 1865.