A. S. F. Gow

Andrew Sydenham Farrar Gow (27 August 1886 – 2 February 1978)^[1] was a classical scholar at Cambridge University specialising in poetry.

He was primarily associated with Trinity College, being a fellow of it from 1911 on, interrupted only by a period as Assistant Master of Eton College, 1914–1925. He was the Brereton Reader in Classics from 1947 to 1951.

Gow's notable work includes editions of Theocritus, Machon, and the Greek Anthology. He was closely associated with A. E. Housman, and was a friend of A. F. Scholfield, a classical scholar who was Librarian of Cambridge University Library. While at Eton, Gow was George Orwell's tutor. Orwell consulted him in 1927 when he was planning to become a writer and maintained contact with him.

Spy master

On 20 October 2012 Brian Sewell suggested that Gow may have been the 'fifth man' and spy master of the Cambridge Five. ^[2][3]

Works

• A. E. Housman A Sketch (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1936).
• Letters from Cambridge (London, 1945).
• ed., Theocritus (Cambridge, 1952).
• ed., Bucolici Graeci (Oxford Classical Texts) (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1952). ISBN 0-19-814517-9
• ed. (with A. F. Scholfield), Nicander: the poems and poetical fragments (Cambridge, 1953).
• The Greek Anthology: Sources and Ascriptions (London, 1958)
• ed. (with Denys Page), The Greek Anthology: Hellenistic Epigrams (Cambridge, 1965), 2 vols.
• Machon: The Fragments (Cambridge, 1965).

References

1. British Academy Fellowship entry
2. http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/article3574302.ece
3. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/outsider-ii--almost-always-never-quite-by-brian-sewell-8280371.html