All Scholars

A leading representative of the school of American classical philologists of the late 19th and early 20th century who, under the strong influence of the German universities of the period, made grammar, and above all syntax, the center of their scholarly research, Bennett was the author of several authoritative and influential works on Latin, was extremely active as an editor, serving for ten years as general editor of the widely used Allyn & Bacon College Latin Series, and was among the first chosen to contribute to the Loeb Classical Library. His Loeb Horace, Odes and Epodes, appeared in 1914 and has gone through 16 reprintings.Bennett's scholarship was careful and exact, and was presented in a graceful style of writing. His reputation as an authority on Latin grammar was international. According to Harry Caplan, Bennett's student and successor as a professor at Cornell, A. E. Housman, in conversation with Caplan, described Bennett as "a very good grammarian,"—high praise from one who generally found little to commend in his fellow scholars, least of all American scholars. As a teacher, Bennett was demanding but by no means austere. Students of his who went on to careers in classics have described him as gracious and sympathetic in personal relations, and untiringly patient with those who shared his zeal for the classics. Though his scholarly output was extensive, he impressed his students and colleagues as being primarily a teacher. He was much concerned, throughout his career, with the teaching of classics in the secondary schools. Deeply involved in the academic affairs of his university, he was active also in the American Philological Association and served as its president.