Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve ( October 23 , 1831 – January 9 , 1924 ) , was an American classical scholar . Biography . He was born in Charleston , South Carolina to Emma Louisa Lanneau and Benjamin Gildersleeve ( 1791 – 1875 ) . His father was a Presbyterian evangelist , and editor of the Charleston " Christian Observer " from 1826 to 1845 , of the Richmond ( VA ) " Watchman and Observer " from 1845 to 1856 , and of " The Central Presbyterian " from 1856 to 1860 . He graduated from Princeton in 1849 at the age of eighteen , and went on to study under Johannes Franz in Berlin , under Friedrich Ritschl at Bonn and under Schneidewin at Göttingen , where he received his doctor ' s degree in 1853 . From 1856 to 1876 he was professor of Greek at the University of Virginia , holding the chair of Latin also from 1861 to 1866 . He married September 18 , 1866 in Middlebury , Virginia to Eliza Fisher Colston . After service for the Confederate States Army in the American Civil War , during which Gildersleeve was shot in the leg , he returned to the University of Virginia . Ten years later , he accepted an offer from Daniel Coit Gilman of a position at Johns Hopkins University . In 1880 , the " American Journal of Philology " , a quarterly published by the Johns Hopkins University , was established under his editorial charge , and his strong personality was expressed in the department of the " Journal " headed " Brief Report " or " Lanx Satura , " and in the earliest years of its publication every tiny detail was in his hands . His style in it , as elsewhere , is in striking contrast to that of the typical classical scholar , and accords with his conviction that the true aim of scholarship is " that which is . " He published a " Latin Grammar " ( 1867 ; revised with the co - operation of Gonzalez B . Lodge , 1895 and 1899 ; reprinted 1997 with a bibliography of twentieth - century work on the subject ) and a " Latin Series " for use in secondary schools ( 1875 ) , both marked by lucidity of order and mastery of grammatical theory and methods . His edition of Persius ( 1875 ) is of great value . But his bent was rather toward Greek than Latin . His special interest in Christian Greek was partly the cause of his editing the " Apologies " of Justin Martyr ( 1877 ) , " which " ( to use his own words ) " I used unblushingly as a repository for my syntactical formulae . " Gildersleeve ' s studies under Franz had no doubt quickened his interest in Greek syntax , and his logic , untrammeled by previous categories , and his marvelous sympathy with the language were displayed in this most unlikely of places . His " Syntax of Classic Greek " ( Part I , 1900 , with CWE Miller ) collects these formulae . Gildersleeve edited in 1885 " The Olympian and Pythian Odes of Pindar " , with a brilliant and valuable introduction . His views on the function of grammar were summarized in a paper on " The Spiritual Rights of Minute Research " delivered at Bryn Mawr on June 16 , 1895 . His collected contributions to literary periodicals appeared in 1890 under the title " Essays and Studies Educational and Literary " . He was elected president of the American Philological Association in 1877 and again in 1908 and became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters as well as of various learned societies . He received the honorary degree of LL . D . from William and Mary ( 1869 ) , Harvard ( 1896 ) , Yale ( 1901 ) , Chicago ( 1901 ) , and Pennsylvania ( 1911 ) ; D . C . L . from the University of the South ( 1884 ) ; L . H . D . from Yale ( 1891 ) and Princeton ( 1899 ) ; Litt . D . from Oxford and Cambridge ( 1905 ) . Gildersleeve retired from teaching in 1915 . He died on January 9 , 1924 . Legacy . Gildersleeve House , one of the undergraduate dormitories at Johns Hopkins , is named in his honor . His granddaughter Katherine Lane Weems made the two rhinoceros sculptures at Harvard University