This book explores the series of classic commentaries on the most important Latin texts published by Oxford University Press between 1933 and 1976, which remain extremely influential textbooks for teaching school and university students wherever Classics is taught to English-speakers: in verse, R.G. Austin on four books of Virgil's Aeneid and C.J. Fordyce on Catullus; in prose, Austin on Cicero's Pro Caelio, R.G. Nisbet on Cicero's De Domo and R.G.M. Nisbet on Cicero's In Pisonem. The maroon boards used for these books (hence "Oxford Reds") gave them the added impact of a 'series', and, as well as capturing an impressive niche in the market, they provided a model for editions of Latin authors in the post-war competition for curriculum space in the expanding UK university system. In Oxford Reds, John Henderson uncovers the individual and often surprising stories behind these publications, and brings out the personalities and negotiations that shaped them.His aim is to encourage students and scholars to take a close look at the textbooks they use and live with and, while not ducking the quirks and frailties, to be alive to their pioneering qualities and pedagogical ambition.

John Henderson is Professor of Classics and Fellow of King's College, at the University of Cambridge, UK. His publications include Morals and Villas in Seneca's Letters: Places to Dwell; HORTUS: The Roman Gardening Book; Aesop's Human Zoo: Roman Stories about our Bodies (all 2004), and, as co-author with Mary Beard, Classics: A Very Short Introduction.