Arthur Quiller-Couch

Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch (21 November 1863 – 12 May 1944) was a British writer and literary critic who published using the pseudonym Q. Although a prolific novelist, he is remembered mainly for the monumental publication The Oxford Book of English Verse 1250–1900 (later extended to 1918) and for his literary criticism. He influenced many who never met him, including American writer Helene Hanff, author of 84, Charing Cross Road and its sequel, Q's Legacy.

Early life

Arthur Quiller-Couch was born in the town of Bodmin, Cornwall. He was the son of Dr Thomas Quiller Couch (d. 1884), who was a noted physician, folklorist and historian who married Mary Ford and lived at 63, Fore Street, Bodmin, until his death in 1884. Thomas was the product of the union of two ancient local families, the Quiller family and the Couch family. Arthur was the third in a line of intellectuals from the Couch family. His grandfather, Jonathan Couch, was a naturalist, physician, historian, classicist, apothecary, and illustrator (particularly of fish). His younger sisters Florence Mabel and Lilian M. were also writers and folklorists.

Arthur Quiller-Couch had two children. His son, Bevil Brian Quiller-Couch, was a war hero and poet, whose romantic letters to his fiancée, the poet May Wedderburn Cannan, were published in Tears of War. Kenneth Grahame inscribed a first edition of his The Wind in the Willows to Arthur's daughter, Foy Felicia, attributing Quiller-Couch as the inspiration for the character Ratty.

Quiller-Couch was educated at Newton Abbot Proprietary College between the late 1870's and early 1880's. Thereafter, he also attended Clifton College, and Trinity College, Oxford, where he took a First in Classical Moderations (1884) and a Second in Greats (1886). From 1886, Quiller-Couch worked for a brief time as a Classics lecturer at Trinity. Thereafter, having gained some journalistic experience in London, mainly as a contributor to The Speaker, he resettled at Fowey in Cornwall during 1891.