The warden of English - Jenny McMorris

'[a] story so poignant, impossible to forget, and exceedingly well told' - Simon Winchester, author of "The Surgeon of Crowthorne", in his Foreword. Henry Watson Fowler was born in Tonbridge, Kent, in 1858. This is the first full biography of a man whose Modern English Usage has become a classic text known simply as "Fowler". It is based on meticulous research from previously unpublished papers, letters, and material from the Oxford University Press archives, and tells the story of his work on "The King's English" and the "Concise and Pocket Oxford Dictionaries", as well as on "Modern English Usage", and of his collaboration on some of these projects with his brother Frank. Against the descriptions of Fowler's work is set the story of a man whose career began as a schoolmaster, but who moved to London to begin a new life as a writer. Jenny McMorris chronicles the life of a fascinating and colourful figure who, amongst other things, found love and married at the age of 50, and despite his advancing years enlisted during World War I.;Written to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the publication of "Fowler's Modern English Usage", this fascinating account of one of the most influential figures in the history of the development of the English language gives an insight into the man behind the scholar.