William Paton Ker,
FBA (30 August 1855 – 17 July 1923), was a Scottish literary scholar and essayist.
Life
Born in
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
in 1855, Ker studied at
Glasgow Academy
The Glasgow Academy is a coeducational independent day school for pupils aged 3–18 in Glasgow, Scotland. In 2016, it had the third-best Higher level exam results in Scotland. Founded in 1845, it is the oldest continuously fully independent ...
, the
University of Glasgow
, image = UofG Coat of Arms.png
, image_size = 150px
, caption = Coat of arms
Flag
, latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis
, motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita
, ...
, and
Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...
.
He was appointed to a fellowship at
All Souls College, Oxford
All Souls College (official name: College of the Souls of All the Faithful Departed) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Unique to All Souls, all of its members automatically become fellows (i.e., full members of t ...
, in 1879. He became Professor of English Literature and History at the
University College of South Wales, Cardiff, in 1883, and moved to
University College London
, mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £143 million (2020)
, budget = ...
as
Quain Professor Quain Professor is the professorship title for certain disciplines at University College London, England. The title honours Richard Quain, who became Professor of Anatomy in 1832 at what would become University College, London. Quain left a legacy ...
in 1889.
[ However he retained his links with Oxford and was there almost every week during the 1910s, and available to keen students there. He was later the Oxford ]Professor of Poetry
The Professor of Poetry is an academic appointment at the University of Oxford. The chair was created in 1708 by an endowment from the estate of Henry Birkhead. The professorship carries an obligation to lecture, but is in effect a part-time po ...
from 1920[ to his death, at 67, of a heart attack while climbing the Pizzo Bianco (a minor summit in ]Macugnaga
Macugnaga ( Walser German: ''Z'Makana'') is a mountain village and a comune at elevation, in the province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, in the north of the Piedmont region of Italy.
It is located at the base of Monte Rosa (), the second-tallest moun ...
in northern Italy). A plaque commemorates his death in the Old Church cemetery in Macugnaga. A ''W. P. Ker Memorial Lecture'' is held at Glasgow University in his honour.
Influence
He is referred to repeatedly in J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philology, philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''.
From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was ...
's essay '' Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics''. W. H. Auden
Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry was noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in ...
's discovery of Ker was a turning point:
:"... what good angel lured me into Blackwell's one afternoon and, from such a wilderness of volumes, picked out for me the essays of W. P. Ker? No other critic whom I have subsequently read could have granted me the same vision of a kind of literary All Souls Night in which the dead, the living and the unborn writers of every age and tongue were seen as engaged upon a common, noble and civilizing task. No other could have so instantaneously aroused in me a fascination with prosody, which I have never lost."
Works
*''Epic and Romance: Essays on Medieval Literature'' (1897
second edition 1908
*''The Dark Ages'' (Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1904).
*
*
*
*''English Literature; Medieval'' (1912) – also known as ''Medieval English literature''[ ]
*''Two Essays'' (1918)
*''Sir Walter Scott'' (1919)
*''The Art of Poetry'' (1923)
*''Collected Essays'' (1925)
*''Form And Style In Poetry'' (1928)
*''On Modern Literature'' (1955)
*''Collected Essays'' (1968) edited by Charles Whibley
Charles Whibley (9 December 1859 – 4 March 1930) was an English literary journalist and author. In literature and the arts, his views were progressive. He supported James Abbott McNeill Whistler (they had married sisters). He also recommended ...
Notes
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ker, William Paton
1855 births
1923 deaths
Academics of Cardiff University
Academics of University College London
Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford
Alumni of the University of Glasgow
Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford
Fellows of the British Academy
Oxford Professors of Poetry
Writers from Glasgow
People educated at the Glasgow Academy
Scottish essayists
Scottish literary critics
Scottish scholars and academics