Robert Samuel Woof (20 April 1931 – 7 November 2005) was an English scholar, most famous for having been the first Director of the

Wordsworth Trust The Wordsworth Trust is an independent charity in the United Kingdom. It celebrates the life of the poet William Wordsworth, and looks after Dove Cottage in the Lake District village of Grasmere where Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy Wordswor ...

, which looks after

Dove Cottage Dove Cottage is a house on the edge of Grasmere in the Lake District of England. It is best known as the home of the poet William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy Wordsworth from December 1799 to May 1808, where they spent over eight years of ...

and runs the

tourist attraction A tourist attraction is a place of interest that tourists visit, typically for its inherent or exhibited natural or cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, offering leisure and amusement. Types Places of natural beaut ...

now known as Wordsworth Grasmere in Grasmere, the

Lake District The Lake District, also known as ''the Lakes'' or ''Lakeland'', is a mountainous region and National parks of the United Kingdom, national park in Cumbria, North West England. It is famous for its landscape, including its lakes, coast, and mou ...

, Cumbria. Dove Cottage is known as the centre for British

Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. The purpose of the movement was to advocate for the importance of subjec ...

movement, having been the home of

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

from 1799 to 1808. The actress

Emily Woof Emily Woof (born 1 January 1967) is an English actress and author, best known for film and TV roles including Nancy in '' Oliver Twist'', '' The Full Monty'', an ITV adaptation of '' The Woodlanders'', '' Velvet Goldmine'', '' Wondrous Oblivion ...

is his daughter.

Biography

He was born in

Lancaster Lancaster may refer to: Lands and titles *The County Palatine of Lancaster, a synonym for Lancashire *Duchy of Lancaster, one of only two British royal duchies *Duke of Lancaster *Earl of Lancaster *House of Lancaster, a British royal dynasty ...

, England, the youngest of three children of William Woof, a farm manager, and his wife Annie Mason; his father was bailiff of Home Farm, part of the Royal Albert Institution, Lancaster. He attended Scotforth School and

Lancaster Royal Grammar School Lancaster Royal Grammar School (LRGS) is an 11–18 boys grammar school in Lancaster, England, Lancaster, Lancashire, England. Old students belong to The Old Lancastrians. The school's sixth form opened to girls in 2019. LRGS is also in the Unit ...

and first visited Dove Cottage on a cycling tour in 1949. He attended

Pembroke College, Oxford Pembroke College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford, is located on Pembroke Square, Oxford. The college was founded in 1624 by King James I of England and VI of Scotland, using in part the endowment of merchant Thomas Tesdale ...

on a scholarship, graduating in 1953, and gained a doctorate (1958–61) with a Goldsmith Travelling Fellowship as a lecturer at

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

; his PhD thesis was on "The Literary Relations of

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 ...

and

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

1795–1803". Woof was a Lord Adams of Ennerdale Fellow (1961–62), and Lecturer (1962–71) and Reader (1971–92) in English Literature at

University of Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a public university, public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is a red brick un ...

, holding a Leverhulme Fellowship in 1983–84. He started working at Dove Cottage in 1974, where he was Honorary Keeper of collections of books, manuscripts and paintings (1974–89) and Honorary Secretary and Treasurer (1978–95). He was Director of the

and Wordsworth museum in 1989–2005. He was Vice-Chairman of the Drama Panel of the Arts Council (1982–88), including Acting chairman (1985–86); Vice-Chairman (1983–84) and Chairman (1984–88) of the Literature Panel; and Chairman of the English Touring Theatre (1993–2000). Woof was made

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

in 1998 and Fellow of 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 800 Fellows, elect ...

in 2000.

Personal life

In 1958 he married Pamela Moore; they had two sons and two daughters. He died in

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle ( , Received Pronunciation, RP: ), is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is England's northernmost metropolitan borough, located o ...

, England, in 2005.

Books

* ''William Wordsworth: Critical Heritage'' (Critical Heritage S.),

Routledge Routledge ( ) is a British multinational corporation, multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, academic journals, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanit ...

, an imprint of Taylor & Francis Books Ltd – 22 November 2001, , Hardcover * With Michael Broughton; William Clarke; John Murdoch; Joanna Selbourne; Greg Smith; ''The Spooner Collection of British Watercolours'', Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere, 31 January 2006, * With Jean-Paul Martinon; Hamish Robinson; Daniel Sturgis; Rebecca O'Connor; ''Daniel Buren: At the Wordsworth Trust'', Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere, September 2005, * ''Treasures of the Wordsworth Trust: Published to Celebrate the Opening of the Jerwood Centre at the Wordsworth Trust by Seamus Heaney, 2 June 2005'', Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere, June 2005, (hardcover: ) * With Daniel Sturgis; Matthew Collings; Kathy Kubickif; ''Abstract Logic'', Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere, May 2005, * With Conrad Atkinson; Richard Cork; Henry Shukman; ''Common Sights'', Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere, January 2005, * With Keith Coventry; Des Lawrence; Matthew Hollis; Joan Key; Kay Rosen; Lily van der Stokker; Daniel Sturgis; ''Between Letters and Abstraction'', Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere, January 2005, * With

Jack Mapanje Jack Mapanje (born 25 March 1944)Alice Oswald Alice Priscilla Lyle Oswald (née Keen; born 31 August 1966) is a British poet from Reading, Berkshire. Her work won the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2002 and the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2017. In September 2017, she was named as BBC Radio 4's second ...

and

Peter Oswald Peter Charles Patrick Oswald (born 1965) is an English playwright specialising in verse drama. He was a resident at Shakespeare's Globe theatre in London from 1998 to 2009. Early life Oswald was born the second of four children (eldest of thr ...

; ''Earth Has Not Any Thing to Shew More Fair: A Bicentennial Celebration of Wordsworth's Sonnet Composed upon Westminster Bridge'',

Shakespeare's Globe Shakespeare's Globe is a reconstruction of the Globe Theatre, an Elizabethan playhouse first built in 1599 for which William Shakespeare wrote his plays. Like the original, it is located on the south bank of the River Thames, in Southwark, Lon ...

& The

Trust, 2002, * ''English Poetry 850–1850: The first thousand years: with some romantic perspectives'', Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere, 2000, * ''Romantic icons: The National Portrait Gallery at Dove Cottage, Grasmere'', Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere, 1999, * With Stephen Hebron; ''Towards Tintern Abbey: Bicentenary of "Lyrical Ballads", 1798'', The Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere, July 1998, * With Fay Godwin; ''A Perfect Republic of Shepherds'', Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere, June 1997, * With Stephen Hebron; ''

John Keats John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tub ...

'', Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere, 1995, * ''Shelley: An Ineffectual Angel?'', Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere, December 1992, * ''Tennyson, 1809–1892: A Centenary Celebration'', Tennyson Society, July 1992, * ''Artist as Evacuee: Royal College of Art in the Lake District 1940–1945'', Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere, December 1987, * With Jonathan Wordsworth; Michael C. Jaye; ''William Wordsworth and the Age of English Romanticism'', Piscataway,

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

, US: Rutgers University Press, 1987, * With John Murdoch; ''The Discovery of the Lake District: A Northern Arcadia and Its Uses'', Faber & Faber, October 1986, * With David Thomason; ''Derwentwater – The Vale of Elysiums: An Eighteenth Century Story'', Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere, December 1986, * ''Thomas de Quincey: An English Opium Eater 1785–1859'', Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere, December 1985, * ''Wordsworth Circle: Studies of Twelve Members of Wordsworth's Circle of Friends'', Trustees of Dove Cottage, Grasmere, July 1979,

References

Obituary
in ''The Guardian'' (November 2005)
"Robert Woof CBE"
Fellows Remembered, The Royal Society of Literature

External links

Site of the Wordsworth Trust
{{DEFAULTSORT:Woof, Robert Samuel 1931 births 2005 deaths Alumni of Pembroke College, Oxford People educated at Lancaster Royal Grammar School People from Lancaster, Lancashire Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature University of Toronto alumni Academics of Newcastle University