Happy Birthday, Edith Hamilton

August 12, 1867 is the birthday of Edith Hamilton. Today she is known and beloved for her books The Greek Way and Mythology. One of the great classicists of her generation for the generations who grew up after World War II, she spent much of her life as a teacher and headmistress at the Bryn Mawr School, an all girls prep school in Baltimore. She began writing after she retired, and her first book The Greek Way, was published when she was in her sixties. Mythiology was the book that kids my age who loved the myths were given after we graduated from the D’Aulaires beautiful illustrated texts. I liked Mythology well enough, but when I was a little older and read The Greek Way, it was one of the books that helped me to understand and appreciate Greek literature and culture. She never claimed to be a scholar, but for generations since, she has been one of the voices and minds who opened our eyes to the classics and the Mediterranean world.