Edith Hamilton

Edith Hamilton (August 12, 1867 - May 31, 1963) was a classicist, mythologist, and writer whose most famous book is Mythology. She was born in Dresden, Germany and grew up with her parents in Fort Wayne, Indiana. When she was seven, her father began to teach her Latin and soon added French, German, and Greek to her curriculum. Her education continued at Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Connecticut and Bryn Mawr College (M.A. 1894). In the following year, Edith and her sister Alice became the first female students accepted at the German universities of Leipzig and Munich.

Upon her return to the United States in 1896, Edith Hamilton became the headmistress of Bryn Mawr Preparatory School in Baltimore, Maryland until her retirement in 1922. Upon retiring, she wrote and published various articles about Greek drama and published The Greek Way" in 1930, which paralleled life in ancient Greece and the present day. 1932's The Roman Way did the same between ancient Rome and the present day. Other works published over the next three decades led to her travelling to Greece in 1957, where she stood in the theater of Herodes Atticus and was made an honorary citizen of Athens at ninety years of age. She was also elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Works by Edith Hamilton:

The Greek Way (1930)

The Roman Way (1932)

The Prophets of Israel (1936)

Three Greek Plays (1937)

Mythology (1942)

The Golden Age of Greek Literature (1943)

Spokesmen for God (1949)

Witness to the Truth: Christ and His Interpreters (1949)

Echo of Greece (1957)