Alfred Chilton Pearson, FBA (8 October 1861 – 2 January 1935) was an English
classical scholar
Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...
, noted for his work on
Greek tragedy
Greek tragedy is a form of theatre from Ancient Greece and Greek inhabited Anatolia. It reached its most significant form in Athens in the 5th century BC, the works of which are sometimes called Attic tragedy.
Greek tragedy is widely believed t ...
.DNB Extracted 19 October 2010
Life
After education at
King's College School
King's College School, also known as Wimbledon, KCS, King's and KCS Wimbledon, is a public school in Wimbledon, southwest London, England. The school was founded in 1829 by King George IV, as the junior department of King's College London and ...
and
Highgate School
Highgate School, formally Sir Roger Cholmeley's School at Highgate, is an English co-educational, fee-charging, independent day school, founded in 1565 in Highgate, London, England. It educates over 1,400 pupils in three sections – Highgate ...
Pearson went up to
Christ's College, Cambridge
Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 170 graduate students. The college was founded by William Byngham in 1437 as ...
to read
classics
Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...
where he graduated in 1883. After practising briefly as a
barrister
A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...
Pearson spent ten years (1890–1900) as a schoolmaster before entering his late father's business. During this period he produced school editions of Greek tragedies, including some of the plays of
Sophocles
Sophocles (; grc, Σοφοκλῆς, , Sophoklễs; 497/6 – winter 406/5 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. is one of three ancient Greek tragedians, at least one of whose plays has survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or co ...
, culminating in 1917 with his
magnum opus
A masterpiece, ''magnum opus'' (), or ''chef-d’œuvre'' (; ; ) in modern use is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, ...
, an edition of the ''Fragments of Sophocles'', a work left unfinished on his death by Sir Richard Claverhouse Jebb.
At the age of 58, and despite a life spent outside academia, Pearson was elected in 1919 as the
Gladstone Professor of Greek
The Gladstone Chair of Greek is an academic position that was one of the original endowments of the foundation of the University of Liverpool in 1881. The Chair was named in recognition of the scholarship of W. E. Gladstone, the British prime minis ...
at the
University of Liverpool
, mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning
, established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...
University of Cambridge
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
and a fellow of
Trinity College Trinity College may refer to:
Australia
* Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales
* Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...
.
In 1924, the year of his election as a
Fellow of the British Academy
Fellowship of the British Academy (FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are:
# Fellows – scholars resident in the United Kingdom
# C ...
, Pearson published his edition of the works of Sophocles in the
Oxford Classical Texts
Oxford Classical Texts (OCT), or Scriptorum Classicorum Bibliotheca Oxoniensis, is a series of books published by Oxford University Press. It contains texts of ancient Greek and Latin literature, such as Homer's ''Odyssey'' and Virgil's ''Aeneid'', ...
series, which remained in print until superseded in 1990 by the edition of
* The Fragments of Zeno and Cleanthes: With Introduction and Explanatory Notes ', A. C. Pearson, ed., London: C. J. Clay and Sons and Cambridge University Press: 1891 (The Pitt Press Series). "An essay which obtained the Hare Prize in 1891."
* ''The Helena of Euripides'', edited by A. C. Pearson, Cambridge University Press: 1903 (The Pitt Press Series)
* ''Euripides: The Heraclidae'', edited by A. C. Pearson, Cambridge University Press: 1903 (The Pitt Press Series)
* ''Euripides: The Phoenissae'', edited by A. C. Pearson, Cambridge University Press: 1909 (The Pitt Press Series)
* ''The Ajax of Sophocles'', edited by A. C. Pearson based on the edition of R. C. Jebb, Cambridge University Press, 1912
* ''Fragments of Sophocles – Edited With Additional Notes From the Papers of Sir R. C. Jebb and W. G. Headlam'', 3 volumes, Cambridge University Press, 1917
* ''Sophoclis Fabulae recognovit brevique adnotatione critica instruxit A.C. Pearson'' – Oxford Classical Text, Clarendon Press, 1924