Biography Ernest Myers

Poet Biography

Ernest James Myers was born October 13th, 1844 at Keswick to Frederic Myers and Susan Harriet Myers.
He studied at Balliol College Oxford and Cheltenham. He taught for three years at Wadham College, before moving to London for twenty years. While in London, Myers worked as a translator an editor, and also wed Nora Margaret Lodge, with whom he had five children. From 1876 to 1881, he served as Secretary of the London Society for the Extension of University Teaching. Myers also worked as a volunteer for both the Charity Organization Society and the Society for Protection of Women and Children. In 1891, the Myers family left London for Chislehurst.

Myers is best know for his collaborative work with Andrew Lang and Walter Leaf on books XVII-XXIV of Homer's Iliad. Myers also had published five volumes of poetry in his lifetime: The Puritans in 1869, Poems in 1877, The Defence of Rome in 1880, The Judgement of Prometheus in 1886 and Gathered Poems in 1904. His poem Infant Eyes is said to be about his older son, who died as a soldier in France in 1918.

Myers died on November 25th, 1921, in Etchingham, Sussex.