William Wallace Robson

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

FRSA (20 June 1923 – 31 July 1993) was a British literary critic and scholar.

Life

He was born in

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

on 20 June 1923 the son of Kathleen Ryan and her husband, William Robson, a

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

. He was educated at

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

Modern School. He studied literature at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

, graduating with a BA. In 1946 he began lecturing in English literature, and in 1948 was elected a Fellow and gained an MA. In the early 1950s he founded the Oxford journal ''Essays in Criticism'' with

F. W. Bateson Frederick (Noel) Wilse Bateson (1901 – 1978) was an English literary scholar and critic. Life Bateson was born in Cheshire, and educated at Charterhouse and at Trinity College, Oxford, where he took a BA in English (second class), and then the B ...

. Robson gave the 1957 Chatterton Lecture on Poetry. In 1970 he received a chair in 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 , ...

, and in 1972 moved to a similar position 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 ...

. In 1988 he was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

. His proposers were

Norman Jeffares Alexander Norman "Derry" Jeffares AM (/ˈdʒɛfəz/, 11 August 1920 – 1 June 2005) was an Irish literary scholar. Early life and education Jeffares was born in Dublin, educated at Dublin High School, Trinity College Dublin (where he was elec ...

Donald Low Donald Low (May 2, 1945 - September 18, 2013) was a Canadian microbiologist noted for his role in battling the SARS outbreak of 2003. He was microbiologist-in-chief at Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, from 1985 to 2013. Low graduated from medical s ...

, Archie Turnbull, and John McIntyre. He retired in 1990 and died in Edinburgh on 31 July 1993.http://rse.mtcserver6.com/cms/files/fellows/obits_alpha/robson_william.pdf

Family

In 1962 he married Anne-Varna Moses, and together they had two sons.

Publications

*''Critical Essays'' (1966) *''The Signs Among Us'' (1968) – poetry *''Modern English Literature'' (1970) *''The Definition of Literature'' (1982) *''A Prologue to English Literature'' (1986) *''Critical Enquiries'' (1993) *''The Oxford History of English Literature 1890–1950'' (1993) *''The Oxford Book of Edwardian Verse'' (1993)

References

1923 births 1993 deaths Writers from Plymouth, Devon Alumni of the University of Oxford Academics of the University of Edinburgh Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh {{UK-academic-bio-stub