James Duff Duff (20 November 1860 – 25 April 1940), known as J. D. Duff, was a
Scottish
Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including:
*Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland
*Scottish English
*Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...
translator and
classical scholar best known for his edition of
Juvenal. He was a
Cambridge Apostle.
Biography
Duff was the son of Colonel James Duff, a retired army officer living in
Aberdeenshire
Aberdeenshire ( sco, Aiberdeenshire; gd, Siorrachd Obar Dheathain) is one of the 32 Subdivisions of Scotland#council areas of Scotland, council areas of Scotland.
It takes its name from the County of Aberdeen which has substantially differe ...
, and Jane Bracken Dunlop. He and his twin brother Alan were among the first boys at
Fettes College,
Edinburgh; he came as a scholar to
Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1878 and was elected a Classical
Fellow in 1883, a post he held until his death.
Teaching Latin and Greek at Trinity, and also at Girton, was the main work of his life; and he is best known to classical scholars for what A. E. Housman praised as his 'unpretending school edition' of Juvenal.
He was over forty years old when he taught himself Russian, in order to read in the original the novels of Tolstoy and especially Turgenev, which he had greatly admired in French translations. He never visited Russia, but had Russian friends, with whom he corresponded in their own language: notably Alexandra Grigorievna Pashkova, the wife of a Russian landowner, whose two sons were Trinity undergraduates.[Duff, P. W., "Note on the translator."]
He married Laura Eleanor Lenox-Conyngham on 28 December 1895. They had five children: Lieutenant-General Alan Colquhoun Duff (1896–1973) who published books under the nom-de-plume "Hugh Imber";
Sir James Fitzjames Duff
Sir James Fitzjames Duff (1 February 1898 – 24 April 1970) was an English academic and Vice-chancellor of Durham University.
The son of James Duff Duff, he was educated at Winchester College then (after serving in the Royal Flying Corps from ...
; Patrick William Duff (1901–1991),
Regius Professor of Civil Law at
Trinity College, Cambridge; Mary Geraldine Duff (1904–1995), principal at Norwich Training College,
Norwich; and Hester Laura Elisabeth Duff (1912–2001).
Duff died at the age of 79 at
Cambridge.
Works
Editor
* Lucretius, ''T. Lucreti Cari De Rerum Natura'' (Cambridge, 1889)
* Juvenal, ''Satvrae XIV: Fourteen satires'' (Cambridge, 1898)
Internet Archive
* Pliny, ''C. Plini Caecili secundi epistularum liber sextus'' (Cambridge, 1926)
Translator
*
Sergei Aksakov
Sergey Timofeyevich Aksakov (russian: Серге́й Тимофе́евич Акса́ков) (—) was a 19th-century Russian literary figure remembered for his semi-autobiographical tales of family life, as well as his books on hunting and fi ...
, ''Years of Childhood'' (London: Edward Arnold, 1916)
Internet Archive
* —, ''A Russian Gentleman'' (London: Edward Arnold, 1917)
* —, ''A Russian Schoolboy'' (London: Edward Arnold, 1917)
*
Alexander Herzen, ''Childhood, Youth and Exile, Parts I and II of My Past and Thoughts'' (Yale University Press, 1923)
* Lucan, ''The Civil War'' (Loeb Classical Library, 1928)
Internet Archive
* Silius Italicus, ''Punica'' (Loeb Classical Library, 1934)
volume I - Internet Archive;
volume II - Internet Archive
References
*
* P. W. Duff, "Note on the translator," in Sergei Aksakov, ''Years of Childhood'' (Oxford World Classics, 1983)
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Duff, James Duff
1860 births
1940 deaths
Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge
English classical scholars
People educated at Fettes College
English male writers