Arthur Quiller-Couch Arthur Quiller-Couch Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch (; 21 November 186312 May 1944) was a Cornish writer who published using the pseudonym Q. Although a prolific novelist, he is remembered mainly for the monumental publication "The Oxford Book Of English Verse 1250–1900" (later extended to 1918) and for his literary criticism. He influenced many who never met him, including American writer Helene Hanff, author of "84, Charing Cross Road" and its sequel, "Q's Legacy". His "Oxford Book of English Verse" was a favourite of John Mortimer fictional character Horace Rumpole. Arthur Quiller-Couch was born in the town of Bodmin, Cornwall, by
Arthur Quiller-Couch war hero and poet, whose romantic letters to his fiancée, the poet May Wedderburn Cannan, were published in "Tears of War". Kenneth Grahame inscribed a first edition of his "The Wind in the Willows" to Arthur's daughter, Foy Felicia, attributing Quiller-Couch as the inspiration for the character Ratty. He was educated at Newton Abbot Proprietary College, at Clifton College, and Trinity College, Oxford, where he took a First in Classical Moderations (1884) and a Second in Greats (1886). From 1886 he was for a brief time a classical lecturer at Trinity. After some journalistic experience in London, mainly as a