De Rerum Natura

William Ellery Leonard (1876-1944) was a poet and professor of English at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, where he taught from 1906 until his death. Stanley Barney Smith (1895-1962) was professor of classics at Bowdoin College, 1927-1946. He also taught at the Ohio State University and the University of Illinois during his distinguished career.

A volume which no student of Lucretius, of the classics, of philosophic literature can afford to ignore. - Paul Friedlander, American Journal of Philology (1945) ""For students approaching Lucretius this remains the only commentary in English on the entire work in one volume. Leonard's passionate introduction is a signal milestone in the history of the poem's reception, while the notes in Smith's commentary are a helpful guide to interpretation."" - Peter Knox, editor of Oxford Readings in Ovid ""A tremendous amount of material which will undoubtedly prove of great value to the students of Lucretius."" - Phillip de Lacy, Classical Philology (1943)