Ernest Edwin Speight (6 December 1871 – 17 September 1949), usually known as E E Speight, was a
Yorkshire
Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...
man who travelled in Japan and India and was a professor of English for twenty years at the
Imperial University, Tokyo, Japan and also at the
Fourth Higher School,
Kanazawa
is the capital city of Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 466,029 in 203,271 households, and a population density of 990 persons per km2. The total area of the city was .
Overview Cityscape
File:もてな ...
,
then for a further twenty years at the
Osmania University
Osmania University is a collegiate public state university located in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. Mir Osman Ali Khan, the 7th Nizam of Hyderabad in 1918 , He released a farman to establish OSMANIA UNIVERSITY on the day of 28 August 1918. It ...
,
Hyderabad, India
Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the '' de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River, in the northern part of Southern In ...
. In India he made a study of the
Nilgiri hill tribes and was working on a
Toda grammar at his death
In Speight's youth he was a friend of
W. B. Yeats
William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...
,
A. E. Housman
Alfred Edward Housman (; 26 March 1859 – 30 April 1936) was an English classical scholar and poet. After an initially poor performance while at university, he took employment as a clerk in London and established his academic reputation by pub ...
and
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...
, in his latter years of
Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengalis, Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter ...
,
Aurobindo
Sri Aurobindo (born Aurobindo Ghose; 15 August 1872 – 5 December 1950) was an Indian philosopher, yogi, maharishi, poet, and Indian nationalist. He was also a journalist, editing newspapers such as ''Vande Mataram''. He joined the ...
,
Mohandas K Gandhi, and
Prince Peter of Greece and Denmark
Prince Peter of Greece and Denmark ( el, Πέτρος; 3 December 1908 – 15 October 1980) was a Greek prince, soldier and anthropologist specialising in Tibetan culture and polyandry. Born in Paris and high in the line of succession to the Gre ...
for whom he reviewed some of his writings.
In addition to teaching, Speight wrote a substantial number of English textbooks, some of which remain in use in the 21st-century English syllabus in India.
Speight also wrote fiction, poetry, music, and edited anthologies.
With his business partner R. H. Walpole, Speight issued The Saracen's Head Library (Mary Kingsley Travel Books) book series published by the E. E. Speight & R. H. Walpole publishing house based in
Teignmouth
Teignmouth ( ) is a seaside town, fishing port and civil parish in the English county of Devon. It is situated on the north bank of the estuary mouth of the River Teign, about 12 miles south of Exeter. The town had a population of 14,749 at the ...
, in
Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...
.
Personal life
Speight was married twice. On 11 July 1899 he married Ragna Grõn (11 July 1876 – 3 May 1953) of
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
who travelled to Japan overland by train through Russia from Norway twice with their young son Arthur, and he later married Doris Allix (10 July 1901 – 22 May 1991) in India with whom he had two sons, Peter and Michael.
Honours
Speight was awarded the Fifth Class of the
Order of the Rising Sun
The is a Japanese order, established in 1875 by Emperor Meiji. The Order was the first national decoration awarded by the Japanese government, created on 10 April 1875 by decree of the Council of State. The badge features rays of sunlight ...
by the Emperor of Japan for services to teaching, and was allowed this honour by the King.
Bibliography
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See also
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1934 in poetry
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James Murdoch
James Rupert Jacob Murdoch (born 13 December 1972) is a British-American businessman, the younger son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, and was the chief executive officer (CEO) of 21st Century Fox from 2015 to 2019.
He was the chairman and CEO fo ...
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Speight, E E
English philosophers
Linguists from England
Academic staff of Osmania University
Academic staff of the University of Tokyo
English anthropologists
1871 births
1949 deaths