William Paton Ker by Johnstone Forbes-Robertson Univ Glasgow Hunterian Art Gallery

William Paton Ker, FBA (30 August 1855 – 17 July 1923), was a Scottish literary scholar and essayist.

Life

Born in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

in 1855, Ker studied at Glasgow Academy, the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

, and

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1263 by nobleman John I de Balliol, it has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford and the English-speaking world. With a governing body of a master and aro ...

. He was appointed to a fellowship at

All Souls College, Oxford All Souls College (official name: The College of All Souls of the Faithful Departed, of Oxford) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Unique to All Souls, all of its members automatically become fellows (i.e., full me ...

, in 1879. He became Professor of English Literature and History at the University College of South Wales, Cardiff, in 1883, and moved to

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 ...

as Quain Professor in 1889. However he retained his links with Oxford and was there almost every week during the 1910s, and available to keen students there. He was later the Oxford Professor of Poetry from 1920 to his death, at 67, of a heart attack while climbing the Pizzo Bianco (a summit near Macugnaga in northern Italy). A plaque commemorates his death in the Old Church cemetery in Macugnaga. A ''W. P. Ker Memorial Lecture'' is held at Glasgow University in his honour.

Influence

He is referred to repeatedly in

J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlinson ...

's essay '' Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics''. W. H. Auden's discovery of Ker was a turning point: :"... what good angel lured me into Blackwell's one afternoon and, from such a wilderness of volumes, picked out for me the essays of W. P. Ker? No other critic whom I have subsequently read could have granted me the same vision of a kind of literary All Souls Night in which the dead, the living and the unborn writers of every age and tongue were seen as engaged upon a common, noble and civilizing task. No other could have so instantaneously aroused in me a fascination with prosody, which I have never lost."

Works

*''Epic and Romance: Essays on Medieval Literature'' (1897
second edition 1908
*''The Dark Ages'' (Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1904). * * * *''English Literature; Medieval'' (1912) – also known as ''Medieval English literature'' *''Two Essays'' (1918) *''Sir Walter Scott'' (1919) *''The Art of Poetry'' (1923) *''Collected Essays'' (1925) *''Form And Style In Poetry'' (1928) *''On Modern Literature'' (1955) *''Collected Essays'' (1968) edited by Charles Whibley

Notes

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ker, William Paton 1855 births 1923 deaths Academics of Cardiff University Academics of University College London Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford Alumni of the University of Glasgow Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford Fellows of the British Academy Oxford Professors of Poetry Writers from Glasgow People educated at the Glasgow Academy Scottish essayists Scottish literary critics Scottish scholars and academics Presidents of the Philological Society