James Fitzmaurice-Kelly

James Fitzmaurice-Kelly FBA (1858-1923) was an English writer on Spanish literature.

He was born in Glasgow to Colonel Thomas Kelly of the 40th Regiment of Foot and educated at St Charles's College, Kensington, where he learned Spanish from a fellow pupil and taught himself to read Don Quixote. Obtaining work in Spain as a tutor in Jerez de la Frontera in 1885, he became acquainted with Spanish literary circles, including Juan Valera and Gaspar Núñez de Arce. Returning to England, he established his reputation on Spanish literature through his reviews and articles for London periodicals. His History of Spanish Literature was published in 1898 and confirmed his reputation.

As a lecturer, he taught at Oxford (1902), the British Academy (1905 and 1916), London University, and Cambridge (1908). In 1907 he lectured at various American universities, including Harvard and Yale for the Hispanic Society of America. He was Gilmour professor of Spanish language and literature at the University of Liverpool, and (1908) Norman MacColl lecturer at Cambridge. From 1909 to 1916 he was professor of Spanish language and literature at the University of Liverpool and in 1916 he gave a special course at Cambridge.

He was a fellow of the British Academy, corresponding member of the Real Academia Española de la Lengua and of the Real Academia de la Historia (Madrid); and a Knight Commander of the Order of Alfonso XII.

He contributed on Spanish literature to the 11th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, to the Cambridge Modern History, to Homenaie a Menendez y Pelayo, etc.

He edited and/or introduced:

• The History of Don Quixote of The Mancha: Translated from the Spanish of Miguel De Cervantes by Thomas Shelton: Annis 1612, 1620 (1896)
• The Complete Works of Cervantes (1901- )
• Don Quixote, with John Ormsby (1899-1900)
• The Course of Revolution in Spain and Portugal, 1845-71, in Cambridge Modern History, vol. XI The Growth of Nationalities (1909)
• Oxford Book of Spanish Verse (1913)
• Samaniego's Fabulas en verso (1917)
• Iriarte's Fabulas Literarias (1917)
• Garcilaso de la Vega's Eglogas (1918)
• Poesias varias (1918)
• Cambridge Readings in Spanish Literature (1920)

He wrote:

• Life of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1892)
• A history of Spanish Literature (1898; In Spanish, 1901; in French, 1904; second edition in French, 1913)
• Lope de Vega and Spanish Drama - The Taylorian Lecture (1902)
• Cervantes in England (1905)
• Chapters on Spanish Literature (1908)
• Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra: A Memoir (1913)
• Bibliographie de l'histoire de la littérature espagnole (1913)
• Cervantes and Shakespeare (1916)
• Gongora (1918)
• Fray Luis de Leon (1921)
• Spanish Literature Primer (1922)

He died at his house in Sydenham, Kent, on 30 November 1923 and was cremated and interred at West Norwood Cemetery on 4 December.

External links

• Works by James Fitzmaurice-Kelly at Project Gutenberg
• "Kelly, James Fitzmaurice (1857–1923)", W. J. Entwistle rev. Donald Hawes, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004