He taught himself from an early age by reading in the British Museum, and became a prodigy in classical languages.
[1] He attended Oxford as a servitor, receiving an education and housing in return for acting as a servant to other students.
In 1852 Buckley published the book "The great cities of the ancient world in their glory and their desolation".
In 1851 his literal prose translation of Homer's Odyssey, with explanatory notes, was published in Bohn's Classical Library series.
In 1873 he published a literal prose translation of the complete text of The Iliad,[3] in which he included explanatory notes.