John William Mackail (August 26, 1859 ? December 13, 1945) was a Scottish man of letters and socialist, now best remembered as a Virgil scholar. He was also a poet, literary historian and biographer.

He was born in Ascog on the Isle of Bute, Strathclyde. In his early career he worked at the Ministry of Education (1884-1919). He was later Oxford Professor of Poetry (1906-1911), and President of the British Academy (1932-1936). He was a friend of William Morris, and wrote the 1899 official biography. He also published works on Virgil, the Latin poets, the Icelandic sagas, Shakespeare and the sayings of Jesus. He married Margaret Burne-Jones (1866-1953), the only daughter of artist and designer Edward Burne-Jones. They lived in Kensington and later Holland Park. He became a member of the Order of Merit in 1935. He died in London.

The couple's elder daughter, Angela Margaret, and their son, Denis George, are better known as the novelists Angela Thirkell and Denis Mackail.

Works

• Love in Idleness: A Volume of Poems (1883) anonymous, with H. C. Beeching and J. B. B. Nichols
• The Aeneid of Virgil (1885) translator
• Virgil Eclogues and Georgics (1889)
• Select Epigrams From The Greek Anthology (1890)
• Love's Looking Glass (1892) with H. C. Beeching and J. B. B. Nichols
• Biblia Innocentium: Being the Story of God's Chosen People Before the Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ Upon Earth, Written Anew for Children (Kelmscott Press, 1892)
• The Georgics of Virgil (1899)
• The Life of William Morris, two volumes (1899)
• The Little Bible (1900)
• William Morris: An Address Delivered at Kelmscott House Hammersmith Socialist Society (1902)
• Addresses, four volumes (1902/5)
• The Parting of the Ways: An Address (1903) given in the William Morris Labour Church at Leek, 5th October 1902
• Socialism and Politics: An Address and a Programme (1903)
• Latin Literature
• Homer: An Address Delivered on Behalf of the Independent Labour Party (1905)
• The Sayings of the Lord Jesus Christ (1905)
• William Morris and His Circle (1907)
• The Hundred Best Poems in the Latin Language (1908)
• Latin Literature (1909)
• The Springs of Helicon: A Study of the Progress of English Poetry from Chaucer to Milton (1909)
• Swinburne (1909) University of Oxford lecture April 30, 1909.
• Lectures on Greek Poetry (1910)
• Pervigilium Veneris (1911) editor and translator
• Lectures on Poetry (1914)
• Russia's Gift to the World (1915)
• The Study of Poetry (1915) inauguration of the Rice Institute
• Penelope in the Odyssey (1916)
• Pope (1919) Leslie Stephen Lecture, University of Cambridge 10 May 1919
• The Hundred Best Poems (lyrical) (1920)
• Virgil and His Meaning to the World of To-day (1922)
• Shakespeare (1923) Inaugural Address to the Australian English Association
• Bentley's Milton (1924) British Academy Warton Lecture
• The Pilgrim's Progress (1924) Royal Institution Lecture March 14, 1924
• Life and Letters of George Wyndham (2 vols.) (1924) with Guy Wyndham
• Classical Studies (1925)
• James Leigh Strachan-Davidson, Master of Balliol. A Memoir (1925)
• Studies of English Poets (1926)
• Largeness in Literature (1930)
• The Approach to Shakespeare (1930)
• Coleridge's Literary Criticism (1931)
• Virgil (1931) Henriette Hertz Trust Lecture of the British Academy.
• The Odyssey (1932)
• Virgil's Work: The Aeneid, Eclogues, Georgics (1934)
• Studies in Humanism (1938)
• Poems by Bowyer Nichols (1943)
• An Introduction to Virgil's Aeneid (1946)
• Selections from the Georgics of Virgil (1948)
• Latin Literature (1962) Harry C. Schnur editor
• The Holy Bible for Young Readers, The New Testament

External links