John Jones (1924-2016) in 1979. Courtesy Merton College.
Henry John Franklin Jones (May 6, 1924 - February 28, 2016) was an English academic.[1]
Life[]
Jones was born in Burma, and came to England at the age of 5. He studied at Blundell's school, Devon. In 1942 he entered Merton College, Oxford as a law student. The following year he was drafted; he served in the Royal Navy until 1946, when he returned to Merton. He graduated in 1948, and became a tutorial fellow o the college in 1955. He became a senior lecturer in English at Oxford in 1956, and a tutor in English at Merton in 1963, a position he held for 30 years until his 1993 retirement.[2]
His lectures have been described as "extraordinary" and "spectacular". Yet, because he lectured ad lib, his lectures have not survived.[1]
He wrote 8 books, on diverse literary topics including Greek tragedy, Wordsworth, and Shakespeare, and a novel, The Same God (1972), that were described as "idiosyncratic" by literary historian and prolific critic Frank Kermode (1920-2010).[3]
During his career, he moonlighted as a freelance journalist. A keen football fan (supporting Plymouth Argyle), he was football correspondent for the Observer for 3 years.[2]
Recognition[]
Jones was elected as the 38th Oxford Professor of Poetry, serving 1978-1983.[1]
Publications[]
Novel[]
- The Same God: A novel. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1971.
Non-fiction[]
- The Egotistical Sublime: A history of Wordsworth's imagination. London: Chatto & Windus, 1954; Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1978.
- On Aristotle and Greek Tragedy. London: Chatto & Windus, 1962; Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1962.
- Heathcote William Garrod, 1878-1960. London: Oxford University Press, 1962.
- John Keats's Dream of Truth. London: Chatto & Windus, 1969; New York: Barnes & Noble, 1969.
- Dostoevsky. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press / New York: Oxford University Press, 1983.
- Shakespeare at Work. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press / New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
- 1999: Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment
Edited[]
- H.W. Garrod, The Study of Good Letters. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1963; Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1975.
Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.[4]
See also[]
| Preceded by John Wain |
Oxford Professor of Poetry 1978-1983 |
Succeeded by Peter Levi |
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 John Jones, Oxford don - obituary, The Telegraph, March 18, 2016. Web, Mar. 29, 2017.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Professor John Jones 1924-2016, Merton College, University of Oxford. Web, Mar. 30, 2017.
- ↑ Kermode, Frank, "Improving the Plays" (review of Jones' Shakespeare at Work), London Review of Books 18(5), 7 March 1996, 6-7.
- ↑ Search results = au:John Jones, WorldCaat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Mar. 6, 2016.
External links[]
- Professor John Jones 1924-2016, Merton College
- John Jones, Oxford don - obituary, The Telegraph
| Original Penny's Poetry Pages article, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 3.0. |
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