American Classicist: The Life and Loves of Edith Hamilton

American Classicist: The Life and Loves of Edith Hamilton by Victoria Houseman is a new biography of Hamilton (Class of 1894, Greek and Latin). Hamilton didn’t publish her first book until she was 62, after running a girls’ prep school for 26 years. Over the next three decades, this former headmistress would become the twentieth century’s most famous interpreter of the classical world. Today, Hamilton’s Mythology (1942) remains the standard version of ancient tales and sells tens of thousands of copies a year. Houseman tells the fascinating life story of a remarkable classicist whose ideas were shaped by—and aspired to shape—her times. (Princeton University Press, 2023)