Laurence Lerner (12 December 1925 – 19 January 2016), often called Larry, was a
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
n-born
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
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 ...
, poet, novelist, and lecturer, recognized for his achievement with his election to
The Royal Society of Literature
The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 600 Fellows, elec ...
.
Biography
Laurence Lerner was born in
Cape Town
Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...
, South Africa; his Jewish father Israel was from
Zhitomir
Zhytomyr ( uk, Жито́мир, translit=Zhytomyr ; russian: Жито́мир, Zhitomir ; pl, Żytomierz ; yi, זשיטאָמיר, Zhitomir; german: Schytomyr ) is a city in the north of the western half of Ukraine. It is the administrative ...
, Ukraine and his mother May from
Abinger Hammer
Abinger Hammer is a village in the Vale of Holmesdale, located on the A25 in Surrey, England. The village is located within the Surrey Hills AONB, approximately midway between the market towns of Dorking and Guildford. The village is named af ...
, England. He was educated at
St George's Grammar School, Cape Town, the
University of Cape Town
The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...
and
Pembroke College, Cambridge
Pembroke College (officially "The Master, Fellows and Scholars of the College or Hall of Valence-Mary") is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college is the third-oldest college of the university and has over 700 ...
.
He was lecturer in
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
, from 1949 to 1953 at the
University College of the Gold Coast in West Africa, from 1953 to 1962 tutor then lecturer in English at
Queen's University Belfast
, mottoeng = For so much, what shall we give back?
, top_free_label =
, top_free =
, top_free_label1 =
, top_free1 =
, top_free_label2 =
, top_free2 =
, established =
, closed =
, type = Public research university
, parent = ...
(where one of his students was
Seamus Heaney
Seamus Justin Heaney (; 13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. ), lecturer then reader then professor of English at the
University of Sussex
, mottoeng = Be Still and Know
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £14.4 million (2020)
, budget = £319.6 million (2019–20)
, chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar
, vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil
, ...
(1962–84), and Edwin Mims Professor of English at
Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...
,
Nashville
Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...
,
Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
(1985–95). He won the 1991 Harvie Branscomb Distinguished Professor Award.
Lerner taught in many universities around the world in addition to those where he held positions jobs, including Munich, Dijon, various places in the US and Canada, Kashmir, Wurzburg, and Vienna. On British Council lecture tours he traveled to France, Germany, Spain, South America, Turkey and India. These experiences led to his most personal book, ''Wandering Professor''.
Although he described himself as a follower who was surprised to be accepted, Lerner was an active member of the Society of Friends (
Quakers
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abil ...
), attending
Brighton
Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London.
Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...
, Nashville and then Lewes meetings. For many years, he taught a
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
summer school at the
Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre
Woodbrooke Study Centre is a Quaker college in Selly Oak, Birmingham, England.
The only Quaker Study Centre in Europe, it was founded by George Cadbury in 1903 and occupies his former home on the Bristol Road. Woodbrooke's first Director of S ...
. He gave the
Swarthmore Lecture
Swarthmore Lecture is one of a series of lectures, started in 1908, addressed to Britain Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).
The preface to the very first lecture explains the purpose of the series.
“This book is t ...
in 1984 ''(The Two Cinnas – Quakerism, Revolution and Poetry)''. He was Clerk to the Lewes meeting for several years. He was also a Governor of
Leighton Park School
Leighton Park School is a co-educational Independent school (United Kingdom), independent school for both day and boarding pupils in Reading, Berkshire, Reading in South East England. The school's ethos is closely tied to the Quaker values, havin ...
, a
Quaker
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...
school in England.
He published nine collections of poetry, three novels, ten books of literary criticism, reflections on English language usage and life as a professor, and lectures, essays and poems. He edited two anthologies of modern literary criticism of Shakespeare's plays for
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.[Accra, Ghana
Accra (; tw, Nkran; dag, Ankara; gaa, Ga or ''Gaga'') is the capital and largest city of Ghana, located on the southern coast at the Gulf of Guinea, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. As of 2021 census, the Accra Metropolitan District, , ...]
, and Martin and Richard, born in
Belfast, Northern Ireland.
[Edwin Lerner, Obituary of Natalie Lerner]
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
, 15 December 2014, accessed 20 April 2022.
He died on 19 January 2016 at the age of 90.
Works
Poetry
*''Domestic Interior'', Hutchinson, 1959
*''The Directions of Memory'', Chatto & Windus, 1964
*''Selves'', Routledge, 1969 .
*
*''A.R.T.H.U.R & M.A.R.T.H.A. The loves of the computers'', Secker & Warburg, 1980
*''The Man I Killed'', Secker & Warburg, 1980
*''Chapter & Verse: Bible Poems'', Secker & Warburg, 1984
*''Selected Poems'', Secker & Warburg, 1984
*''Rembrandt's Mirror'', Secker & Warburg, 1987
Fiction
*''The Englishman'', Hamish Hamilton, 1959
*''A Free Man'', Chatto & Windus, 1968
*''My Grandfather's Grandfather'', Secker & Warburg, 1985
Criticism
*''The Truest Poetry: An essay on the Question, What is Literature?'' Hamish Hamilton, 1960
*''The Art of George Eliot. A selection of contemporary reviews'' (including
Henry James
Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...
,
George Saintsbury,
Geraldine Jewsbury
Geraldine Endsor Jewsbury (22 August 1812 – 23 September 1880) was an English novelist, book reviewer and literary figure in London, best known for popular novels such as ''Zoe: the History of Two Lives'' and reviews for the literary periodica ...
and
Sidney Colvin
Sir Sidney Colvin (18 June 1845 – 11 May 1927) was a British curator and literary and art critic, part of the illustrious Anglo-Indian Colvin family. He is primarily remembered for his friendship with Robert Louis Stevenson.
Family and early ...
), with John Holstrom, Bodley Head, 1966
*''The Truthtellers: Jane Austen, George Eliot, D H Lawrence'', Chatto & Windus, 1967
*''The Uses of Nostalgia: Studies in Pastoral'', Chatto & Windus, 1972
*''An introduction to English poetry: fifteen poems discussed by Laurence Lerner'', Edward Arnold, 1975 .
*''The Victorians'', Methuen, 1978,
*''Love & Marriage: Literature in its Social Context'', Edward Arnold, 1979
*''The Literary Imagination: Essays on Literature & Society'', Harvester, 1982
*''The Frontiers of Literature'', Blackwell, 1988
*
Angels and Absences: child deaths in the nineteenth century', Vanderbilt University Press, 1997,
*
Other works
*''Shakespeare's Tragedies; An Anthology of Modern Criticism'', Penguin, 1963, ASIN B000GR3A7W
*''Shakespeare's Comedies; An Anthology of Modern Criticism'', Penguin, 1967, ASIN B002R84WZC
"The History of a Poem" ''
The Dark Horse'', Summer 1997''
*
*
Wandering Professor', Caliban, 1999, .
Poem
Here is a poem by Laurence Lerner (not infringing copyright, since submitted by the author, who holds the copyright!)
''Kaspar Hauser''
All that long time there was the place I was,
All that long same, the dark and constant same.
I came to being and it bit my eyes.
I want to be a rider like my father.
A soldier was my father was a horseman.
I want to be a rider and I want
Out of that same he carried me upstairs,
Out of that dark and then I stood to lean;
The soft ground stood and hit me where I fell.
When it was hunger time they put soft life
Into my mouth. It moved. The warm flesh tore
Under my teeth. This could be me I'm eating.
I spat and called: I loved that time, those horses,
The brittle bread, the water, the soft dark,
The stiff floor always there, the always steady
Till I was carried to the bumpy world:
The air threw needles at my eyes. I fell.
Where were my walls, my horse to push, and where –
I want my floor my bread my dark my always –
I want the same the only same the only –
I want to be a rider like my father
Readings
Readings by Laurence Lerner of several of his poems appear o
YouTube
See also
*
List of South Africans
This is a list of notable and famous South Africans who are the subjects of Wikipedia articles.
Academics
Academics
*Estian Calitz, academic (born 1949)
* Jakes Gerwel, academic and anti-apartheid activist (1946–2012)
*Miriam Green, acad ...
References
External links
"Laurence Lerner"(Fellows Remembered),
The Royal Society of Literature
The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 600 Fellows, elec ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lerner, Laurence
1925 births
2016 deaths
Academics of Queen's University Belfast
British poets
British Jews
British Quakers
Jewish poets
South African poets
South African Jews
Lithuanian Jews
Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge
University of Cape Town alumni
Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature
South African literary critics
British male poets
South African emigrants to the United Kingdom