Harry Thurston Peck

Harry Thurston Peck (November 24, 1856 – March 23, 1914) was an American classical scholar, author, editor, historian and critic.

[2] He was among several faculty members appointed to newly created chairs when he became Anthon Professor of Latin Language and Literature at the celebration of the 150th anniversary of Columbia's founding in 1904.

[3] Peck also wrote travel guides and produced translations and works for children under a number of pseudonyms, and he was a frequent and forceful contributor to magazines and newspapers.

In 1906 he published a nearly 800-page monument of progressive historiography, Twenty Years of the Republic 1885-1905, expansive, dense with detail and reference, penetrating, scathing in its revelations of actual social, economic and political conditions.

He was increasingly depressed and unable to find work, and was seen one day near the end of his life on the streets of Manhattan "walking in a dazed sort of way" and "entirely oblivious to his surroundings.