Fred Norris Robinson (April 4, 1871 – July 21, 1966), professionally known as F. N. Robinson, was an eminent American Celticist and scholar of

Geoffrey Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He wa ...

Biography

Robinson received his B.A. (1891), M.A. (1892), and PhD (1894) from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, working with the eminent medievalists

Francis James Child Francis James Child (February 1, 1825 – September 11, 1896) was an American scholar, educator, and folklorist, best known today for his collection of English and Scottish ballads now known as the Child Ballads. Child was Boylston professor of r ...

and

George Lyman Kittredge George Lyman Kittredge (February 28, 1860 – July 23, 1941) was a professor of English literature at Harvard University. His scholarly edition of the works of William Shakespeare was influential in the early 20th century. He was also involved i ...

. In 1936, after appointments at Harvard as instructor (1894), assistant professor (1902), and professor (1906), he succeeded his thesis adviser, Kittredge, as Gurney Professor of English. In 1895, he spent a year abroad at the

University of Freiburg The University of Freiburg (colloquially german: Uni Freiburg), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (german: Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg), is a public university, public research university located in Freiburg im Breisg ...

, Germany, working with Rudolph Turneysen, one of the founders of Celtic Philology. He received honorary doctorates from the

National University of Ireland The National University of Ireland (NUI) ( ga, Ollscoil na hÉireann) is a federal university system of ''constituent universities'' (previously called ''university college, constituent colleges'') and ''recognised colleges'' set up under t ...

and the

University of Dublin The University of Dublin ( ga, Ollscoil Átha Cliath), corporately designated the Chancellor, Doctors and Masters of the University of Dublin, is a university located in Dublin, Ireland. It is the degree-awarding body for Trinity College Dubl ...

, was an honorary member of the

Royal Irish Academy The Royal Irish Academy (RIA; ga, Acadamh Ríoga na hÉireann), based in Dublin, is an academic body that promotes study in the sciences, humanities and social sciences. It is Ireland's premier List of Irish learned societies, learned socie ...

and also the Consultative Committee of the Irish Texts Society. He was elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

in 1911 and the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

in 1944.

Scholarly achievements

Robinson's main scholarly achievement was the publication, after 29 years of preparatory work, of the most influential edition of ''The Works of

'' (1933; second edition, 1957, published under slightly different titles). The 1987 ''Riverside Chaucer'', while revised and re-edited by several colleagues, is greatly indebted to his work. These three editions have facilitated more students' first contact with the medieval author than any other editions of Chaucer. Moreover, Robinson's work as editor contributed to the move of Chaucer studies from Europe to North America. Robinson essentially established Celtic Studies in the United States. From 1896 at Harvard, he taught the US's first classes in Irish and continued them until the chair in Celtic Studies was established there. He amassed a voluminous collection of books related to Irish, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Cornish, Breton and Manx language and literature, which he bequeathed to

Widener Library The Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library, housing some 3.5million books in its "vast and cavernous" stacks (library architecture), stacks, is the centerpiece of the Harvard College Libraries (the libraries of Harvard's Harvard Faculty of Arts an ...

. As a result, the university has the world's most comprehensive collection of works in the Celtic Studies field.Anita Obermeier, "Robinson, Fred Norris," ''Handbook of Medieval Studies'', ed. Albrecht Classen (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2010), pp. 2594-99 (here 2594).

Select publications

* ''The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer'', ed. F.N. Robinson (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1933). * ''The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer'', ed. F.N. Robinson (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1957).

Literature

* Daniel Donoghue, “The History of English Medieval Studies at Harvard University,” ''Medieval English Newsletter'' 28 (June 1993): 1–3. * Richard Utz, “The Colony Writes Back: F.N. Robinson’s ''Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer'' (1933) and the ''Translatio'' of Chaucer Studies to the United States.” ''Studies in Medievalism'' 19 (2010): 160-203.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Robinson, Fred Norris 1871 births 1966 deaths Harvard University faculty American medievalists Chaucer scholars Harvard University alumni Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America Linguistic Society of America presidents Presidents of the Modern Language Association Members of the American Philosophical Society