Edward Frederick James (born 14 May 1947) is a British scholar of medieval history and science fiction. He is Emeritus Professor of Medieval History at University College, Dublin. James received the

Hugo Award The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) and chosen by its members. The award is administered by th ...

for his non-fiction book ''The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction'' (co-edited with Farah Mendlesohn), and the

Pilgrim Award The Pilgrim Award is presented by the Science Fiction Research Association for Lifetime Achievement in the field of science fiction scholarship. It was created in 1970 and was named after J. O. Bailey’s pioneering book ''Pilgrims Through Space an ...

for lifetime contribution to SF and fantasy scholarship.

Biography

James was born in

Solihull Solihull ( ) is a market town and the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Solihull is situated on the River Blythe in the Arden, Warwickshire, Forest of Arden ar ...

, Warwickshire. He attended the Solihull School and read Modern History at

St John's College, Oxford St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded as a men's college in 1555, it has been coeducational since 1979.Communication from Michael Riordan, college archivist Its foun ...

(1965-1968). He completed postgraduate work at the Institute of Archaeology, Oxford, 1968-1970, supervised by Professor Christopher Hawkes. James was awarded D.Phil in 1975, for a thesis entitled ‘South-West Gaul from the fifth to the eighth century: the contribution of archaeology’. He began teaching in 1970 at University College, Dublin. He was a lecturer at the Department of Medieval History in University College Dublin from 1970 to 1978. He was a lecturer in early medieval history at the Department of History,

University of York The University of York (abbreviated as or ''York'' for Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a public Collegiate university, collegiate research university in York, England. Established in 1963, the university has expanded to more than thir ...

, 1978 to 1995, as well as Director of the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York from 1990 to 1995. He was Professor of Medieval History at the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public research university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as the University Extension College, Reading, an extension college of Christchurch College, Oxford, and became University College, ...

from 1995 to 2004 and was a Director of the Graduate Centre for Medieval Studies, 1999–2001. He retired in 2012.

Recognition

James is the recipient of the 2004

for lifetime contribution to science fiction and fantasy scholarship. He has also won the

Hugo Award for Best Related Work The Hugo Award for Best Related Work is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for primarily non-fiction works related to science fiction or fantasy, published or translated into English during the previous calendar year. The Hugo Awards have bee ...

and a BSFA Award for Best Non-Fiction, in addition to multiple nominations for individual works.

Personal life

James married his fellow academic, Farah Mendlesohn in 2001.

Selected works

* ''Visigothic Spain: New Approaches''. Edited by James. Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York: Oxford University Press, 1980. () * ''The Origins of France: From Clovis to the Capetians, 500–1000''. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1982. . * ''The Franks''. Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 1988. . * ''The Profession of Science Fiction: SF Writers on their Craft and Ideas''. Edited by

Maxim Jakubowski Maxim Jakubowski (born 1944) is an English writer of crime fiction, erotica, and science fiction, and also a rock music critic. Jakubowski was born in 1944 in England to Russian-British and Polish parents, but raised in France. Jakubowski has a ...

and James; foreword by Arthur C. Clarke. Insights series. Macmillan UK, 1992. ."Bibliography: The Profession of Science Fiction"
(1992 book). ISFDB. Retrieved 2015-03-26. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992. (. * ''Science Fiction in the Twentieth Century''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994. ) * ''The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction''. Edited by James and Farah Mendlesohn. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2003. . * ''Britain in the First Millennium''. London: Oxford University Press, 2001. . * ''Europe's Barbarians, AD 200–600''. Harlow, England: Pearson Longman, 2009. . * ''A Short History of Fantasy''. Farah Mendlesohn and James. London: Middlesex University Press, 2009. . * ''The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature''. Edited by James and Farah Mendlesohn. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2012. .

Notes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:James, Edward 1947 births British medievalists British literary critics Science fiction academics Hugo Award–winning editors Historians of France Historians of Spain Historians of the British Isles Academics of University College Dublin Alumni of St John's College, Oxford Historians of the University of York Academics of the University of Reading Living people Speculative fiction editors