Fowler, Henry Watson

Fowler, Henry Watson, 1858–1933, English lexicographer, b. Devon, educated at Oxford. Both he and his brother, Francis G. Fowler (1870–1918), had been teachers before they began their literary collaboration with a translation of Lucian (1905). They also worked together on The King's English (1906), a trenchant and witty book of modern English usage and misusage, and on The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English (1911) and The Pocket Oxford Dictionary (1924). After the death of his brother in 1918, H. W. Fowler completed A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926) alone. These works became invaluable reference books for writers, editors, and all those interested in the usage of modern English.