Sweet's Anglo-Saxon Primer is possibly the most popular Old English textbook ever written, and with good reason. It is brief and accessible without being unduly simplistic. Students will find that the grammar and glossary make the sample texts far less daunting than they might expect, and will give them the confidence to read more widely in Old English. Henry Sweet (1845-1912) was a leading expert on phonetics and Old English and was partly the basis for the character of Henry Higgins in Shaw's Pygmalion. He was appointed Reader in Phonetics at the University of Oxford in 1901.