Professor Frank Kermode

Sir John Frank Kermode was born in November 1919. He was a British literary critic best known for his work "The Sense of an Ending: Studies in the Theory of Fiction", published in 1967 and for his extensive book-reviewing and editing.Kermode was born on the Isle of Man, and was educated at Douglas High School and Liverpool University. He served in the Royal Navy during World War II, for six years in total, much of it in Iceland.He began his academic career as a lecturer at Durham University in...See more

Sir John Frank Kermode was born in November 1919. He was a British literary critic best known for his work "The Sense of an Ending: Studies in the Theory of Fiction", published in 1967 and for his extensive book-reviewing and editing.Kermode was born on the Isle of Man, and was educated at Douglas High School and Liverpool University. He served in the Royal Navy during World War II, for six years in total, much of it in Iceland.He began his academic career as a lecturer at Durham University in 1947. He later taught at Reading University, then the University of Bristol. He was named Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English Literature at University College London from 1967 to 1974. In 1974, Kermode took the position of King Edward VII Professor of English Literature at Cambridge University, resigning in 1982. He then moved to Columbia University, where he was Julian Clarence Levi Professor Emeritus in the Humanities. In 1975-76 he held the Norton Lectureship at Harvard University. He was knighted in 1991.Kermode died in Cambridge on 17 August 2010. See less