Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller Couch was a British author who wrote under the name Q. He was born on November 21, 1863, and died on May 12, 1944. Even though he wrote a lot of novels, he is best known for his literary criticism and the massive book The Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1900 (later expanded to 1918). Many people, including the American author Helene Hanff, who wrote 84, Charing Cross Road and its follow-up, Q's Legacy, were inspired by him even though they never met him. His Oxford Book of English Verse was a favorite of Horace Rumpole, a figure in John Mortimer's stories. Arthur Quiller-Couch was born in England in the town of Bodmin in the county of Cornwall. He was born to Dr. Thomas Quiller Couch (d. 1884), a famous doctor, folklorist, and scholar who married Mary Ford and lived at 63 Fore Street, Bodmin, until he died there in 1884. Thomas was born from the marriage of two very old families in the area: The Couch family and the Quiller family. Arthur was the third smart person in the Couch family to come from that line. Jonathan Couch, his grandpa, was a naturalist, a doctor, a historian, a classicist, an apothecary, and an artist (mostly of fish). He had two younger sisters named Florence Mabel and Lilian M. who were also artists and folklorists.
