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
The Woodlanders in October 1884. It was published as a serial in this magazine and in the American "Harper's Bazaar" in 1887, followed by a three-volume first edition in March of the same year. "The Woodlanders" was widely praised. It was declared by the "Saturday Review" in April 1887 to be, "the best [novel] that Hardy has written", by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, "his loveliest if not his finest book", by William Lyon Phelps, "the most beautiful and most noble of Hardy's novels", and by A. Edward Newton, "one of the best novels of the last half century". The novel remained a personal