George Stuart Gordon
George Stuart Gordon (1881–1942) was a British literary scholar.
Gordon was educated at Glasgow University, Oriel College, Oxford (First Class in Classical Moderations 1904 and in Literae Humaniores 1906, Stanhope Prize 1905).
He was a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford from 1907 to 1915.
He was Professor of English Literature at Leeds University. Later he was Merton Professor of English Literature at Oxford, 1922–1928,[2] President of Magdalen College, Oxford,[1] Professor of Poetry there, and Vice-Chancellor (1938–1941). He was one of the Kolbítar, J. R. R. Tolkien's group of readers of Icelandic sagas.[3]
He famously argued that English Literature was capable of having a widespread and positive influence. In his inaugural lecture for his Merton professorship he agued that "England is sick, and … English literature must save it. The Churches (as I understand) having failed, and social remedies being slow, English literature has now a triple function: still, I suppose, to delight and instruct us, but also, and above all, to save our souls and heal the State".[2]
His son George Gordon was a noted physiologist.[4]
[edit] Works
- Henry Peacham's The Compleat Gentleman (1906) editor
- English Literature and the Classics (1912) editor, contribution on Theophrastus
- Mons and the Retreat (1917)[3]
- Medium Aevum and the Middle Age (1925) Society for Pure English Tract 19
- Richard II (Shakespeare) (1925) editor
- On writing and writers, Walter Alexander Raleigh (1926) editor
- Companionable Books (1927)
- Shakespeare's English (1928) Society for Pure English Tract 29
- Anglo-American Literary Relations (1942)
- The Letters of G. S. Gordon, 1902-1942 (1943)
- Shakespearian Comedy and other studies (1945)
- The Discipline of Letters (1946)
- Robert Bridges (1946) Rede Lecture
- More Companionable Books (1947)
- The Lives of Authors (1950)
[edit] References
- Mary C. Biggar Gordon (1945) The Life of George S. Gordon 1881–1942
[edit] Notes
| Academic offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Thomas Herbert Warren |
President of Magdalen College, Oxford 1928–1942 |
Succeeded by Henry Thomas Tizard |
| Preceded by Alexander Dunlop Lindsay |
Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University 1938–1941 |
Succeeded by William David Ross |
