John Bernard Beer, FBA (31 March 1926 – 10 December 2017) was a British

literary critic Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...

. He was emeritus professor of English literature at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

and a fellow of

Peterhouse, Cambridge Peterhouse is the oldest constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England, founded in 1284 by Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely. Today, Peterhouse has 254 undergraduates, 116 full-time graduate students and 54 fellows. It is quite ...

. Best known as a scholar and critic of

Romantic poets Romantic poetry is the poetry of the Romantic era, an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. It involved a reaction against prevailing Enlightenment ideas of the 18t ...

– especially

William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. ...

Samuel Taylor Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge (; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poe ...

, and

William Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Ballads'' (1798). Wordsworth's ' ...

– he also published on

E. M. Forster Edward Morgan Forster (1 January 1879 – 7 June 1970) was an English author, best known for his novels, particularly ''A Room with a View'' (1908), ''Howards End'' (1910), and ''A Passage to India'' (1924). He also wrote numerous short stori ...

. He was elected a fellow of 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 ...

in 1994. Beer served in the

RAF The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

from 1946 to 1948. He was a junior research fellow at

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corpo ...

, from 1955 to 1958. Between 1958 and 1964 he was assistant lecturer and then lecturer at the

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

. From 1964 until his retirement in 1993, he was successively lecturer, reader (1978) and professor (1987) of English literature at the

. He was married to the literary critic Gillian Beer, DBE. He was president of the

Charles Lamb Society The Charles Lamb Society (CLS) celebrates and contributes to scholarship on the life and work of Charles Lamb (1775-1834) and Mary Lamb (1764-1847). Charles Lamb was an English essayist and poet whose literary circle included important figures in ...

from 1989 until 2002. He was a Leverhulme emeritus fellow in 1995–1996 and was the 2006 Stanton lecturer in the philosophy of religion in the University of Cambridge.

Works

*''Coleridge, the Visionary'', Chatto & Windus, 1959
Humanities Ebooks, 2007
*''The Achievement of E. M. Forster'', Chatto & Windus, 1962

*''Blake's humanism'', Manchester University Press/Barnes & Noble, 1968; Humanities Ebooks, 2007. *''Blake's Visionary Universe'', Manchester University Press/Barnes & Noble, 1969. *''Coleridge's Poetic Intelligence'', Macmillan, 1977. *''Wordsworth and the human heart'', 1978. *''Questioning Romanticism'', Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995. *''Post-Romantic Consciousness: Dickens to Plath'', Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. *''William Blake: a Literary Life'', Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.

External links

*
John Beer's biographical entry in the directory of the British AcademyBiographical entry in Debrett'sReport of death
1926 births 2017 deaths Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Fellows of Peterhouse, Cambridge Fellows of the British Academy Academics of the Victoria University of Manchester Literary critics of English British literary critics 20th-century Royal Air Force personnel Fellows of St John's College, Cambridge {{UK-academic-bio-stub