North American Scholar

HOWE, George

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  • Date of Birth (YYYY-MM-DD): 1876-10-03
  • Born City: Wilmington
  • Born State/Country: NC
  • Parents: George, a clergyman & Anne Josephine Wilson H.
  • Date of Death (YYYY-MM-DD): 1936-06-22
  • Death City: Chapel Hill
  • Death State/Country: NC
  • Married: Margaret S. Flinn, 27 Oct. 1903; Mrs. Ethel Eason, 1934.
  • Education:

    A.B. Princeton, 1897; study at Oxford; A.M., Ph.D., Halle, 1903; study at ASCSR, 1912-3.
  • Professional Experience:

    Prof. Lat. & chair dept. Lat. U. North Carolina, 1903-36; dean Coll. Lib. Arts, 1919-22; mem. N. Carolina State Council of Defense, 1917-8; ed. comm. StPhil, 1915-36; first pres. So. Sect. CAMWS, 1921-2.
  • Dissertation:

    “Fasti sacerdotum p.r. publicorum aetatis imperator-iae” (Halle, 1903); printed (Leipzig, 1903).
  • Publications:

    “Nature Similes in Catullus,” StPhil 7 (1911) 1-15; Latin Sight Reader (Raleigh, NC, 1912); “Recent Criticism of Latin Literature,” StPhil 10 (1913) 35-44; “A Note on Phormio,” ibid., 61-3; Latin for Pharmacists, with John Grover Beard (Philadelphia, 1916; repr. Chapel Hill, 1942); “Polyptoton in Tibullus and Propertius,” StPhil 14 (1917) 319-20; “The Vatican Livy and the Script of Tours,” with E. K. Rand, MAAR 1 (1918) 19-57; “The Revelation of Aeneas's Mission,” StPhil 19 (1922) 31-41; Greek Literature in Translation, with G. A. Harrer (New York & London, 1924); Roman Literature in Translation, with G. A. Harrer (New York & London, 1924); The Spirit of the Classics, with G. A. Harrer (New York, 1924); “The Outbreak of War in the Seventh “Aeneid,” StPhil 24 (1927) 607-17; Handbook of Classical Mythology, with G. A. Harrer (New York, 1929); “A Note on Veranius,” CP 27 (1932) 171-3.Bibliography: Albert Suskin, Dr. George Howe: A Bibliography (Chapel Hill, 1936).
  • Notes:

    Following the model of Basil Gildersleeve and others of an earlier generation, George Howe earned a German Ph.D. in classical philology and returned to teach in the United States. He introduced advanced philological studies into graduate training at the University of North Carolina beginning in 1903. Together with his colleague Gustave A. Harrer, he was also a leader in the introduction of the study of classics in translation in state universities. Their anthologies of Greek and Latin literature in translation were widely used throughout the country for 30 years. Howe himself is widely believed to be the original of the Latin professor in Chapter 28 of Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward, Angel.
  • Sources:

    Catherine Meyers Bennington, Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, ed. W. S. Powell (Chapel Hill, 1988) 217-8; CO 14 (1936-7) 4; StPhil 34 (1937) v; WhAm 1:595.
  • Author: George A. Kennedy