Shakespeare's Tragedies: An Anthology of Modern Criticism

Laurence (David) Lerner was a South African-born British literary critic and poet and novelist. Also a lecturer, he taught in many universities around the world. Laurence Lerner was born in Cape Town, South Africa; his Jewish father Israel was from Zhitomir, Ukraine and his mother May from Abinger Hammer, England. He was educated at St George's Grammar School, Cape Town, the University of Cape Town and Pembroke College, Cambridge. He was lecturer in English, from 1949 to 1953 at the University College of the Gold Coast in West Africa, from 1953 to 1962 tutor then lecturer in English at Queen's University Belfast (where one of his students was Seamus Heaney), lecturer then reader then professor of English at the University of Sussex (1962–84), and Edwin Mims Professor of English at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee (1985–95). He won the 1991 Harvie Branscomb Distinguished Professor Award. Lerner taught in many universities around the world in addition to those where he had jobs. The former included Munich, Dijon, various places in the US and Canada, Kashmir, Wurzburg, Vienna, and British Council lecture tours in France, Germany, Spain, South America, Turkey and India. These experiences led to his most personal book, Wandering Professor. Although he described himself as a follower who was surprised to be accepted, Lerner was an active member of the Society of Friends (Quakers), attending Brighton, Nashville and then Lewes meetings. For many years, he taught a Shakespeare summer school at the Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre. He gave the Swarthmore Lecture in 1984 (The Two Cinnas – Quakerism, Revolution and Poetry). He was Clerk to the Lewes meeting for several years. He was also a Governor of Leighton Park School, a Quaker school in England. He published nine collections of poetry, three novels, ten books of literary criticism, reflections on English language usage and life as a professor, and lectures, essays and poems. He edited two anthologies of modern literary criticism of Shakespeare's plays for Penguin Books, which were widely used by A-level students in the UK. He died on 19 January 2016 at the age of 90.

Mutass kevesebbet