Arthur Melville Clark

Dr Arthur Melville Clark FRSE PhD DLit (1895-1990) was a Scottish educationalist and author of several academic books concerning English literature and poetry.

Life

He was born in Edinburgh on 20 August 1895 the son of James Clark and Margaret Moyes McLachlan. He was schooled at Daniel Stewart’s College. He studied at both Oxford and Edinburgh University. On graduation in 1920 he began lecturing in English Language and Literature at Reading University. From 1928 to 1946 he was a Reader in English Literature at Edinburgh University.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1928, his proposers including Francis Albert Eley Crew. In 1947 Edinburgh University awarded him an honorary doctorate (DLit).

He died in Edinburgh on 21 March 1990.

Other Positions of Note

• President of the Speculative Society 1926 to 1929
• President of the Edinburgh branch of the Scott Club 1957-58

War Service

Clark was awarded the Knights Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta in the Second World War. He was also made a Knight of the Order of St Lazarus of Jerusalem. These awards related to his work on international relations during the war.

Publications

See

• The Realistic Revolt in Modern Poetry (1922)
• A Bibliography of Thomas Heywood (1924)
• Thomas Heywood: Playwright and Miscellanist (1931)
• Autobiography: Its Genesis and Phases (1935)
• Spoken English (1946)
• Studies in Literary Modes (1946)
• Sir Walter Scott: The Formative Years (1969)
• Murder Under Trust, or, The Topical MacBeth and Other Jacobean Matters (1982)

Family

Clark never married.