Sir Herbert John Clifford Grierson, FBA (16 January 1866 – 19 February 1960) was a Scottish literary scholar, editor, and literary critic.

Life and work

The grave of Herbert Grierson, Dean Cemetery

He was born in

Lerwick Lerwick (; non, Leirvik; nrn, Larvik) is the main town and port of the Shetland archipelago, Scotland. Shetland's only burgh, Lerwick had a population of about 7,000 residents in 2010. Centred off the north coast of the Scottish mainland ...

Shetland Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the no ...

, on 16 January 1866. He was the son of Andrew John Grierson and his wife, Alice Geraldine (''née'' Clifford) Grierson. In 1896 he married Mary Letitia (née Ogston) Grierson, daughter of Sir

Alexander Ogston Sir Alexander Ogston MD CM LLD (19 April 1844 – 1 February 1929) was a British surgeon, famous for his discovery of '' Staphylococcus''. Life Ogston was the eldest son of Amelia Cadenhead and her husband Prof. Francis Ogston (1803� ...

, Professor of Surgery at Aberdeen. They had five daughters including Molly Dickins, author of ''A Wealth of Relations'', about family history, writer Flora Grierson who co-founded the

Samson Press The Samson Press was a small letterpress printing business or private press run by Joan Mary Shelmerdine (1899–1994) and Flora Margaret Grierson (1899–1966). In its early years it was known for producing small editions of literary works with h ...

, and writer and pianist

Janet Teissier du Cros Janet Teissier du Cros (born Janet Sinclair Craigie Grierson; 26 January 1905 – 14 October 1990) was a writer, translator, broadcaster and pianist who was brought up in Scotland and then lived in France for sixty years. She wrote about her life ...

. He was educated at King's College,

University of Aberdeen The University of Aberdeen ( sco, University o' 'Aiberdeen; abbreviated as ''Aberd.'' in List of post-nominal letters (United Kingdom), post-nominals; gd, Oilthigh Obar Dheathain) is a public university, public research university in Aberdeen, Sc ...

and

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniqu ...

. On graduating from the latter he was appointed Professor of

English Literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...

at his Aberdeen alma mater, where he taught from 1894 to 1915, and subsequently became Knight Professor of English Literature at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

(1915–1935). In 1920 he delivered the

British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars span ...

's Warton Lecture on English Poetry. He is credited with promoting interest in the

metaphysical poets The term Metaphysical poets was coined by the critic Samuel Johnson to describe a loose group of 17th-century English poets whose work was characterised by the inventive use of conceits, and by a greater emphasis on the spoken rather than lyrica ...

, especially

John Donne John Donne ( ; 22 January 1572 – 31 March 1631) was an English poet, scholar, soldier and secretary born into a recusant family, who later became a clergy, cleric in the Church of England. Under royal patronage, he was made Dean of St Paul's ...

, a revival more commonly attributed to

T. S. Eliot Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National Biogr ...

. His special field of research was English poetry of the 17th century, but he was also interested in

Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'', ''Rob Roy (n ...

. He lived at 12 Regent Terrace, Edinburgh from 1913 to 1953Mitchell, Anne (1993), "The People of Calton Hill", Mercat Press, James Thin, Edinburgh, . and was a member of the Scottish Arts Club.Graves, Charles (1974), ''Men of Letters'', in ''The Scottish Arts Club, Edinburgh, 1874 - 1974'', The Scottish Arts Club, Edinburgh, p. 52. He died on 19 February 1960 in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

. He is buried in the modern north extension to

Dean Cemetery The Dean Cemetery is a historically important Victorian cemetery north of the Dean Village, west of Edinburgh city centre, in Scotland. It lies between Queensferry Road and the Water of Leith, bounded on its east side by Dean Path and on ...

, off Queensferry Road in western

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

with his wife, Mary Letitia (1868-1937).

Works

*''The First Half of the Seventeenth Century'' (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1906); author. Vol. VII of series called, ''Periods of European Literature'', ed.

Professor Saintsbury George Edward Bateman Saintsbury, FBA (23 October 1845 – 28 January 1933), was an English critic, literary historian, editor, teacher, and wine connoisseur. He is regarded as a highly influential critic of the late 19th and early 20th centu ...

*''The English Parnassus'' (1909) anthology of longer poems, editor with W. MacNeile Dixon *''Poems of Tennyson'' (1910) *''The Poems of John Donne'' 2 vols. (Oxford UP, 1912) editor *
Metaphysical Lyrics & Poems of the Seventeenth Century: Donne to Butler
' (1921) *''Don Quixote: Some War-time Reflections on Its Character and Influence'' (1921) pamphlet *''William Blake's Designs for Gray's Poems'' (1922) *''Poems of Lord Byron'' (1923) *''The Background Of English Literature and Other Collected Essays & Addresses '' (1925) *''Lyrical Poetry from Blake to Hardy'' (1928, Hogarth Press) *''Cross-Currents in 17th Century English Literature'' (1929) *''The Flute, with Other Translations and a Poem'' (Samson Press, 1931) *''Sir Walter Scott: Broadcast Lectures to the Young'' (1932) *''Sir Walter Scott To-Day: Some Retrospective Essays and Studies'' (1932) editor *''The Letters of Sir Walter Scott '' (from 1932) editor *''Carlyle and Hitler'' (1933)

Adamson Lecture The Adamson Lectures was a series of annual lectures held at the Victoria University of Manchester on the subject matter of logic and philosophy. They were named in honour of Robert Adamson. Lectures * 1907 — ''On the Light Thrown by Recent I ...

in the University of Manchester (1930) *''Oxford Book of Seventeenth Century Verse'' (1934) editor with G. Bullough (1934) *''Milton and Wordsworth'' (1937) *''The English Bible'' (1943) *''A Critical History of English Poetry'' (1944) with J. C. Smith *''The Personal Note, an Anthology of First and Last Words'' (1946) editor with

Sandys Watson Sandys may refer to: * Sandys (surname), an Anglo-Saxon surname, including a list of people with the name * Sandyston Township, New Jersey * Sandys Row Synagogue, London * Sandy's, a fast-food restaurant * Sandys Wason, early 20th-century curate of ...

*''Criticism and Creation With Some other Essays'' (1949) *''Swinburne'' (1953)

References

Sources

* '' Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia'' (Second edition, 1965)

External links

*
''Metaphysical poets'' at Bartleby.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grierson, Herbert J. C. 1866 births 1960 deaths Scottish literary critics Scottish scholars and academics People from Lerwick Academics of the University of Edinburgh Rectors of the University of Edinburgh Alumni of the University of Aberdeen Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford Knights Bachelor