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Gustavus Adolphus Harrer

Gustavus Adolphus Harrer was appointed professor of Latin at UNC in 1915 and served until his death in 1943. He was a popular teacher and a mainstay of the department as a Latinist, directing 30 theses and 10 dissertations. Together with George Howe, he published two source books of classical literature, Roman Literature in Translation (1924) and Greek Literature in Translation (1924) in a new series, “The Spirit of the Classics,” established at that time by Harpers. The preface to the 1924 edition states the purpose of the series: “The Spirit of the Classics has been designed … not merely as an anthology of the masterpieces of Greek and Latin literatures. Its purpose is to reproduce through translation the life and thought of the ancient peoples as they expressed them in their literatures, in brief enough form to be accessible to all.” The books continued in use at UNC over many years and were revised in 1948 by P. H. Epps, who included much new material.

Department of Classics
212 Murphey Hall CB#3145 • UNC-CH • Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3145
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