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One notable thing about a 400+ page biography of Homer is, well, we basically know nothing about Homer or his life. Sure, a lot of legends and passed-down stories, most of doubtful reliability, though that's not exactly where Snider is starting - he even admits the lack of documentation. He's drawing from more recent secondary sources and crucially as the title says is trying to pull information from the works, a dubious task at best. Still, Snider seems to stay somewhat reasonable. That's only the first part of the book - in the second he gives us a long poem about Homer's life that appears to be a kind of historical fantasy (since I haven't read it).
Denton J. Snider (1841-1925) was a St. Louis-based language teacher, philosopher, author and lecturer. His many books includes ones on Goethe, Shakespeare, Lincoln, Emerson and Johnny Appleseed.
