AL Rowse

Alfred Leslie Rowse , usually quoted AL Rowse , called Leslie Rowse , (born December 4, 1903 in Tregonissey , St Austell , Cornwall ; † October 3, 1997 in Cornwall) was a British historian, poet and author who was also known for his preoccupation with William Shakespeare and whose time is known.

Life

Rowse came from a poor background; his father worked in a clay quarry in Cornwall. He won a scholarship to attend school and study history at Christ Church College in Oxford from 1921. He was sponsored by the scholar Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch , who recognized his talent early on and was also from Cornwall. In 1925 he graduated with top marks and became a Fellow of All Souls College . In 1929 he received his MA and in 1927 was a lecturer at Merton College , Oxford. In 1930 he became a lecturer at the London School of Economics . After the war he continued his career in Oxford and became a sub-warden at Al Souls College. In 1953 he received a D.Litt. in Oxford. He was also a Senior Research Fellow at the Huntington Library in California from the 1950s , where he traveled frequently. He published close to a hundred books and gave many lectures, especially in the United States. In 1973 he retired from Oxford and moved to Cornwall. It is in the Campdowns Cemetery in Charlestown near St Austell.

He wrote several biographies of Shakespeare (which, according to the obituary in the New York Times, are characterized by great erudition, but sometimes also by bold, self-confidently presented speculations, for example about the Dark Lady of the Sonnets), but also, for example, biographies on Matthew Arnold , John Milton , Christopher Marlowe , the Churchill family, contemporary historians, homosexuality in history (he was openly gay himself), and books on Cornwall. He also published poetry and wrote for newspapers such as The New York Times .

In 1931 and 1935 he ran for a seat in Parliament for the Labor Party in Penryn and Falmouth, but was unsuccessful. In order to be successful at the third attempt against the Conservative candidate, he made an agreement with the Liberal Party for 1939, but the outbreak of war did not lead to it. After that, he gave up his political ambitions and approached the Tories towards the end of his life . One of his favorite subjects was the cultural decline in the 20th century and the condemnation of the appeasement policy against Hitler.

He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature , the Royal Historical Society and the British Academy (1958) and Companion of Honor (CH). In 1957 he gave the British Academy's Raleigh Lecture on Richard Grenville .

Fonts (selection)

• On History: a Study of Present Tendencies , London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., 1927
• Science and History: a New View of History , London: WW Norton, 1928
• Politics and the Younger Generation , London: Faber & Faber, 1931
• The Question of the House of Lords , London: Hogarth Press, 1934
• Queen Elizabeth and Her Subjects (with GB Harrison), London: Allen & Unwin, 1935
• Mr. Keynes and the Labor Movement , London: Macmillan, 1936
• Sir Richard Grenville of the "Revenge" , London: Jonathan Cape, 1937
• Tudor Cornwall , London: Jonathan Cape, 1941
• A Cornish Childhood , London: Jonathan Cape, 1942
• The Spirit of English History , London: Jonathan Cape, 1943
• The English Spirit: Essays in History and Literature , London: Macmillan, 1944
• West Country Stories , London: Macmillan, 1945
• The Use of History (key volume in the Teach Yourself History series), London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1946
• The End of an Epoch: Reflections on Contemporary History , London: Macmillan, 1947
• The England of Elizabeth: the Structure of Society . London: Macmillan, 1950
• The English Past: Evocation of Persons and Places , London: Macmillan, 1951
• To Elizabethan Garland , London: Macmillan, 1953
• The Expansion of Elizabethan England , London: Macmillan, 1955
• The Early Churchills , London: Macmillan, 1956
• The Later Churchills , London: Macmillan, 1958
• The Elizabethans and America: The Trevelyan Lectures at Cambridge, 1958 , London, Macmillan, 1959
• St Austell: Church, Town, Parish , St Austell: HE Warne, 1960
• All Souls and Appeasement : a Contribution to Contemporary History , London: Macmillan, 1961
• Ralegh and the Throckmortons , London: Macmillan, 1962
• William Shakespeare: a Biography , London: Macmillan, 1963
• Christopher Marlowe: a biography , London: Macmillan, 1964
• Shakespeare's Sonnets , London: Macmillan, 1964
• A Cornishman at Oxford , London: Jonathan Cape, 1965
• Shakespeare's Southampton: Patron of Virginia , London: Macmillan, 1965
• Bosworth Field and the Wars of the Roses , London: Macmillan, 1966
• Cornish Stories , London: Macmillan, 1967
• A Cornish Anthology , London: Macmillan, 1968
• The Cornish in America , London: Macmillan, 1969 (also as The Cousin Jacks )
• The Elizabethan Renaissance: the Life of Society , London: Macmillan, 1971
• The Elizabethan Renaissance: the Cultural Achievement , London: Macmillan, 1972
• The Tower of London in the History of the Nation , London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1972
• Shakespeare The Man , London: Macmillan, 1973
• Windsor Castle In the History of the Nation , London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1974
• Victorian and Edwardian Cornwall from old photographs , London: Batsford, 1974
• Simon Forman : Sex and Society in Shakespeare's Age , London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1974
• Discoveries and Reviews: from Renaissance to Restoration , London: Macmillan, 1975
• Oxford: In the History of the Nation , London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1975
• Jonathan Swift: Major Prophet , London, Thames & Hudson, 1975
• A Cornishman Abroad , London: Jonathan Cape, 1976
• Matthew Arnold: Poet and Prophet , London: Thames & Hudson, 1976
• Homosexuals In History , London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1977
• Shakespeare the Elizabethan , London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1977
• Milton the Puritan: Portrait of a Mind (London: Macmillan, 1977
• The Byrons and the Trevanions , London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1978)
• A Man of the Thirties , London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1979
• Memories of Men and Women , London: Eyre Methuen, 1980
• Shakespeare's Globe: his Intellectual and Moral Outlook , London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1981
• A Life: Collected Poems , Edinburgh: William Blackwood, 1981
• Eminent Elizabethans , London: Macmillan, 1983
• Night at the Carn and Other Stories , London: William Kimber, 1984
• Shakespeare's Characters: a Complete Guide , London: Methuen, 1984
• Glimpses of the Great , London: Methuen, 1985
• The Little Land of Cornwall , Gloucester: Alan Sutton, 1986
• A Quartet of Cornish Cats , London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1986
• Stories From Trenarren , London: William Kimber, 1986
• Reflections on the Puritan Revolution , London: Methuen, 1986
• The Poet Auden : a Personal Memoir , London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1987
• Court and Country: Studies in Tudor Social History , Brighton: Harvester Press, 1987
• Froude the Historian: Victorian Man of Letters , Gloucester: Alan Sutton, 1987
• Quiller Couch: a Portrait of "Q" , London: Methuen, 1988
• AL Rowse's Cornwall: a Journey through Cornwall's Past and Present , London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1988
• Friends and Contemporaries , London: Methuen, 1989
• The Controversial Colensos , Redruth: Dyllansow Truran, 1989
• Discovering Shakespeare: a Chapter in Literary History , London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1989
• Four Caroline Portraits , London: Duckworth, 1993
• All Souls in My Time , London: Duckworth, 1993
• The Regicides and the Puritan Revolution , London: Duckworth, 1994
• Historians I Have Known , London: Duckworth, 1995
• My View of Shakespeare , London: Duckworth, 1996
• Cornish Place Rhymes , Tiverton: Cornwall Books, 1997 (memory book published posthumously by S. Butler)
• The Elizabethan Age , 4 volumes, London: Folio Society, 2012, with volumes:
  • The England of Elizabeth ; The Expansion of Elizabethan England ; The Elizabethan Renaissance: The Life of the Society ; The Elizabethan Renaissance: The Cultural Achievement

literature

• John McManners: Alfred Leslie Rowse, 1903-1997 . In: Proceedings of the British Academy . tape 105 , 2000, pp. 537-552 ( thebritishacademy.ac.uk [PDF]).

Web links

• Robert Thomas , New York Times obituary, October 6, 1997.

Individual evidence

1. ^ After him, Emilia Bassano Lanier, daughter of an Italian court musician. One of his sources was the diaries of Simon Forman .