Henry Watson Fowler

Life & Legacy

Henry Watson Fowler (10 March 1858 – 26 December 1933) was an English schoolmaster, lexicographer and commentator on the usage of the English language. He is notable for A Dictionary of Modern English Usage and his work on the Concise Oxford Dictionary, and was described by The Times as "a lexicographical genius".
After an Oxford education, Fowler became a schoolmaster. In middle age, he worked in London as an (unsuccessful) freelance writer and journalist. In partnership with his brother Francis, beginning in 1906, he began publishing seminal grammar, style, and lexicography books. After his brother's death in 1918, he completed the works on which they had collaborated and edited additional works.