Kathleen Freeman (classicist)

Kathleen Freeman (22 June 1897 – 21 February 1959) was a British classical scholar and author of detective novels. Her detective fiction was published under the pseudonym Mary Fitt. Freeman was a lecturer in Greek at the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire, Cardiff, between 1919 and 1946.For a brief note on Liliane Clopet, her career and her writings se
Biography and bibliography
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by Edith Hall.

Early life and education

Kathleen Freeman was born in Yardley, Birmingham, and was the daughter of a commercial traveller, Charles H. Freeman, and Catharine Freeman, née Mawdesley. By the 1911 census, the family had moved to an eight-room house at 86 Conway Road, Cardiff.^:315 Freeman's mother died in 1919, and her father died in 1932.^:315 Freeman attended Canton High School on Market Road in Cardiff, which opened in 1907. Boys and girls were both educated in the school but separately in different subjects: Canton High School offered Latin but not to girls, and Freeman's schooling did not include Greek or Latin.

In a field dominated by men, she was an unlikely candidate to become a classicist of note.^:315 No details have been found about when or with whom she started to learn ancient Greek.^:316 Freeman knew Latin, French, German, Italian, and ancient and modern Greek. Except for French, which was taught at Canton High School, it remains unclear how she learnt these languages.^:316

Freeman won a scholarship to study at the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire, Cardiff, which began to accept male and female students in 1893.^:317 She began her degree in 1915 and studied with Professor Gilbert Norwood.

Academic career

Following her graduation in 1918 when she was awarded a BA, Freeman remained at University College and was appointed Lecturer in Greek in 1919. She went on to earn an MA in 1922 and a DLitt in 1940. A 1922 picture of the faculty at University College shows 41 men and 10 women. Only one of these women, Ida Beata Saxby, had a doctorate (University of London, 1918).^:318

Freeman is best known for her works ''The Pre-Socratic Philosophers: A Companion to Diels, Fragmente Der Vorsokratiker'' (1946), and ''Ancilla to the Pre-Socratic Philosophers'' (1947/48)'','' a translation of and handbook to the fragments of Pre-Socratic philosophers collected by Diels.

From early in her career, Freeman worked to bring Greek texts to the general public through her work in translating texts and presenting her ideas to general audiences.^:333 Freeman featured on BBC
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