Henry Watson Fowler - Definition and Overview

Henry Watson Fowler (10 March 1858 - 26 December 1933) was an English schoolmaster, lexicographer and commentator on usage, notable for both Fowler's Modern English Usage (first published 1926) and his work on the Concise Oxford Dictionary.

Born in Tonbridge, he graduated from Rugby and Balliol College, Oxford, then spent 17 years teaching English grammar at a secondary school in Yorkshire. He then went to London and worked as a freelance journalist.

In 1903 he moved to the island of Guernsey, where he worked with his brother Francis George Fowler on The King's English (1906), a work with the novel purpose of encouraging writers to be more simple and direct in their style.

Following the death of its editor, he helped complete work on the first edition of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary under the editorship of C.T. Onions.

Reference

• Jenny McMorris, The Warden of English: The Life of H.W. Fowler (Oxford University Press, 2001) ISBN 0198662548