All Scholars

F. G. Allinson was the second Johns Hopkins Ph.D. in Greek (after E. G. Sihler). A writer of brisk and witty style that is occasionally too indulgent of metaphor, he specialized in the "brisk and witty authors Lucian and Menander, whom he brought to life in his famous classes at Brown. In his popular book on Lucian, dedicated to his teacher Gildersleeve, he deals especially well with Lucian's sources and his "legatees" in modern art and literature. Allinson notes that Lucian was an "Apostle of Free Speech," who used his freedom to puncture pretension and pomposity. His Loeb Menander was the first attempt to make what was then known of Menander's work available to English speakers. It is, as befits a Loeb, tex-tually conservative and shows Allinson's powers of synthesis and expression in his introduction and synopses. His attempt to translate into the original meters is not entirely well conceived. Allinson was also one of the privileged classicists who wrote a book with his wife. Greek Lands and Letters intends to "interpret Greek lands by literature and Greek literature by local associations and physical environment." Filled with maps and literary mentions of the sites, it is intended as a vademecum for the general reader touring the mainland and nearby islands. Having read the book, Gildersleeve wrote him, "What a joy life must be to you both, mated as you are, moving in the same sphere of studies in such perfect harmony of vision and feeling."