Background

Charles Bennett was born on April 6, 1858, at Providence, Rhode Island, the son of James and Lucia (Dyer) Bennett.

Education

Bennett was graduated from Brown University in 1878, after which he taught for a year in a school at Milton, Florida, and for two years at Sing Sing, New York. He then studied for a year (1881 - 1882) at Harvard University and for two years in Germany (Leipzig, 1882-1883; Berlin, 1883-1884; Heidelberg, 1884).

Career

Bennett was principal of the preparatory department of the University of Nebraska for five years, after which he was professor of Latin in the University of Wisconsin (1889 - 1891) and professor of classical philology at Brown University (1891 - 1892) before his election, in 1892, to the professorship of Latin in Cornell University, which he held to the end of his life. From 1892 until his death he was editor of the Cornell Studies in Classical Philology and from 1895 to 1905 of the College Latin Series published by Allyn and Bacon.

In addition to a very considerable number of articles in periodicals Bennett published many writings. Most of his books are textbooks for the use of pupils in secondary schools, but Bennett's scholarship was such that even in textbooks he embodied the results of original thought and research, making those books of value to professional scholars, as well as to teachers and pupils. His contributions to knowledge in the fields of Latin syntax (chiefly in his Syntax of Early Latin) and metric (chiefly in articles) gained him an international reputation among scholars, his textbooks made him favorably known to great numbers of his countrymen, and men of letters honor him for his translations. He was one of the outstanding classical scholars of his time.

There was nothing spectacular in Bennett's quiet and studious career. He was primarily interested in enlarging human knowledge concerning the Latin language and literature, but he was also of marked ability as a teacher, especially of mature and competent students. His standards were high and exacting. During the great war he was active in relief work and was chairman of the Belgian Relief Committee of Tompkins County. His death was caused by heart failure and came suddenly, almost without warning.

Achievements

• Charles Bennett was a well-known professor of Latin in Cornell University (1892- 1921) and editor of the Cornell Studies in Classical Philology (1892-1921) and the College Latin Series (1895-1905). Bennett's literary works comprise: A Latin Grammar (1895), Appendix to Bennett's Latin Grammar (1895), A Latin Composition (1896), The Foundations of Latin (1898), The Quantitative Reading of Latin Poetry (1899), The Teaching of Latin and Greek in Secondary Schools (1900, with George P. Bristol), Latin Lessons (1901), Preparatory Latin Writer (1905), The Latin Language (1907), First Year Latin (1909), Syntax of Early Latin (vol. I, 1910, vol. II, 1914), and New Latin Composition (1912), besides annotated editions of Cæsar's Gallic War, books I-IV (1903), Cicero, Selected Orations (1904), Virgil’ Neid, books I-IV (1905), and also translations of The Characters of Theophrastus (1902, with William A. Hammond), Horace, Odes and Epodes (1914, Loeb Classical Library), and Frontinus, The Stratagems and the Aqueducts of Rome (1925, Loeb Classical Library).

Works

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  • The Teaching of Latin and Greek in the Secondary School, by Charles E. Bennett,a.B., and George P. Bristol

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • The Characters of Theophrastus

    (This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)

  • A New Latin Composition (1919)

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

  • The Latin Language: A Historical Outline of Its Sounds, Inflections, and Syntax (Classic Reprint)
  • Syntax of Early Latin
  • New Latin Grammar

Membership

Charles Bennett was president of the American Philological Association (1907-1908), a member of the American Philosophical Society.

Personality

Charles Bennett had a quick and versatile mind and was an entertaining talker, greatly interested in the arts, especially in ecclesiastical architecture, as well as in music, literature, and the culture of flowers. He was also an enthusiastic fisherman. He had in him a strong mystic vein, a reverent and religious spirit.

Connections

Charles Bennett was married to Margaret Gale Hitchcock, of Lincoln, Nebraska.

Father:

James Bennett

Mother:

Lucia (Dyer) Bennett

Wife:

Margaret Gale (Hitchcock) Bennett