Leonard Wilson Forster (30 March 1913 – 18 April 1997) was an English linguist and academic. He was successively Professor of German at

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

, and Schröder Professor of German at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

Life and work

Born in London, Forster was the godchild (and son) of Leonard Llewelyn Bulkeley Williams. Forster studied at

Marlborough College Marlborough College is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English private boarding school) for pupils aged 13 to 18 in Marlborough, Wiltshire, England. It was founded as Marlborough School in 1843 by the Dean of Manchester, George ...

Trinity Hall, Cambridge Trinity Hall (formally The College or Hall of the Holy Trinity in the University of Cambridge, colloquially "Tit Hall" ) is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1350, it is th ...

, where he read Modern Languages (a contemporary of Donald MacLean) and from where he obtained his BA in 1934 and MA in 1938, and the

University of Basel The University of Basel (Latin: ''Universitas Basiliensis''; German: ''Universität Basel'') is a public research university in Basel, Switzerland. Founded on 4 April 1460, it is Switzerland's oldest university and among the world's oldest univ ...

, where he was awarded a PhD in 1938. During his studies, he served as English

lector Lector is Latin for one who reads, whether aloud or not. In modern languages it takes various forms, as either a development or a loan, such as , , and . It has various specialized uses. Academic The title ''lector'' may be applied to lecturers ...

at the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December 1409 by Frederick I, Electo ...

in 1934, at the

University of Königsberg The University of Königsberg () was the university of Königsberg in Duchy of Prussia, which was a fief of Poland. It was founded in 1544 as the world's second Protestant Reformation, Protestant academy (after the University of Marburg) by Duke A ...

from 1935 to 1936, and the

from 1936 to 1938. During World War II he worked as an intelligence assessor/translator at

Bletchley Park Bletchley Park is an English country house and Bletchley Park estate, estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes (Buckinghamshire), that became the principal centre of Allies of World War II, Allied World War II cryptography, code-breaking during the S ...

, with the rank of Lieutenant commander of the

Royal Naval Reserve The Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) is one of the two volunteer reserve forces of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. Together with the Royal Marines Reserve, they form the Maritime Reserve. The present RNR was formed by merging the original ...

Academia

Forster was a Fellow of

Selwyn College, Cambridge Selwyn College, Cambridge is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1882 by the Selwyn Memorial Committee in memory of George Selwyn (bishop of Lichfield), Georg ...

in 1937/1938–1950 and 1961–1997, a University Lecturer in German at Cambridge University in 1947–1950, and Professor of German at

in 1950–1961. In 1961 he became the Schröder Professor of German at Cambridge University, where he worked until 1979. He was also the President of the International Association for German Studies (Internationale Vereinigung für Germanistik, IVG) from 1970 to 1975. In 1976, he became a

Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (post-nominal letters FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in t ...

. He was for many years editor of ''German Life and Letters'', whose most famous subscriber is perhaps

John le Carré David John Moore Cornwell (19 October 193112 December 2020), better known by his pen name John le Carré ( ), was a British author, best known for his espionage novels, many of which were successfully adapted for film or television. A "sophist ...

's character

George Smiley George Smiley OBE is a fictional character created by John le Carré. Smiley is a career intelligence officer with " The Circus", the British overseas intelligence agency. He is a central character in the novels '' Call for the Dead'', '' A ...

. In 1979 he received an Honorary Doctorate from the

University of Bath The University of Bath is a public research university in Bath, England. Bath received its royal charter in 1966 as Bath University of Technology, along with a number of other institutions following the Robbins Report. Like the University ...

Family

He married Jeanne Marie Louise Billeter of Basel in 1939 and they had one son,

Thomas Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the A ...

, and two daughters. He died in Cambridge in 1997.

Bibliography

*''German Poetry, 1944-1948'' (Cambridge:

Bowes & Bowes Bowes & Bowes was a bookselling and publishing company based in Cambridge, England. History The firm was established by Robert Bowes (publisher), Robert Bowes (1835–1919), a nephew of Daniel MacMillan, Daniel Macmillan (1813–1857) who, with ...

, 1949) *''German Tales of Our Time'' (London: George G. Harrap and Co., 1953) *''The Penguin Book of German Verse'' (Harmondsworth:

Penguin Books Penguin Books Limited is a Germany, German-owned English publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers the Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the ...

, 1957) *''Janus Gruter's English Years: Studies in the Continuity of Dutch Literature in Exile in Elizabethan England'' (Leiden: Leiden University Press, 1967) *''The Icy Fire: Five Studies in European Petrarchism'' (Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

, 1969) *''The Poet's Tongues: Multilingualism in Literature'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970)

References

1913 births 1997 deaths Alumni of Trinity Hall, Cambridge Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve personnel of World War II Schröder Professors of German People educated at Marlborough College University of Basel alumni Academic staff of Leipzig University Academic staff of the University of Königsberg Academic staff of the University of Basel Fellows of Selwyn College, Cambridge Academics of University College London Fellows of the British Academy 20th-century British linguists Linguists from England Academics from London {{England-academic-bio-stub