A. L. Rowse: Encyclopedia II - A. L. Rowse - Life

A. L. Rowse - Life

Alfred Leslie Rowse was born in Tregonissey near St Austell, Cornwall, the son of Dick Rowse, a china clay miner, and Annie (née Vaston). His parents were very poor and virtually illiterate. Despite this handicap and fragile health, he attended St. Austell grammar school and won a scholarship to Christ Church College, Oxford in 1921.

Rowse had planned to study literature, having developed an early love of poetry, but was persuaded to read modern history. Whilst an undergraduate he developed a reputation for his devotion to speaking precise English and for his candour about his homosexual behaviour. He was a popular student and made many friendships that lasted for life. He graduated with first class honours in 1925 and was made a Fellow of All Souls College, the first such Fellow from a working class background. In 1929, he was awarded his Master of Arts degree, and in 1927 was appointed lecturer at Merton College, where he stayed until 1930. In 1931, he contested the parliamentary seat of Penryn and Falmouth for the Labour Party, but was unsuccessful and became a lecturer at the London School of Economics.

In the general election of 1935) he again proved unsuccessful, and then chose to return to Oxford as Sub-Warden of All Souls collete. In 1952, he failed in his candidacy for election as Warden, shortly after which he retired to Trenarren, his Cornish home, for the remainder of his life. He received a doctorate (D. Litt.) from the university in 1953. After delivering the British Academy's 1957 Raleigh Lecture on History about Sir Richard Grenville's place in English history he became a Fellow of the Academy in 1958. Despite his academic and social success, he remained proud of his working-class origins.

Rowse published 105 books. Upon publication of the first volume of his autobiography in 1942 he became celebrated and travelled widely, especially in the United States. He also published many popular articles in newspapers and magazines in England and the United States. His brilliance was widely recognised, and his knack for the sensational, as well as his academic boldness (which some considered to be irresponsible carelessness), sustained his reputation. His opinions of the academic abilities of his popular fellow historian, Hugh Trevor Roper, were expressed sometimes in ripe terms, sometimes with irony.

One of his great enthusiasms was collecting books, and he owned many first editions, many of them bearing his acerbic annotations. His copy of the January 1924 edition of The Adelphi magazine edited by John Middleton Murry bears a pencilled note after Murry's poem In Memory of Katherine Mansfield: 'Sentimental gush on the part of JMM. And a bad poem. A.L.R.'

Rowse was a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Exeter in 1960, was elected to Athenaeum under Rule II in 1972, received the Benson Medal of the Royal Society of Literature in 1982 and was made a Companion of Honour in 1996. Upon his death in 1997 he bequeathed to the University of Exeter his collection of books, and his personal archive of manuscripts, diaries, and correspondence. In 1998 the University Librarian selected about sixty books from Rowse’s own working library and a complete set of his published books. The Royal Institution of Cornwall selected some of the remaining books, and the rest were sold through a London book dealer.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Life", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki