author
George Stuart Gordon
1881–1942
A leading British literary scholar, he helped make the study of English literature feel central to university life rather than secondary to the classics. His career took him from Leeds to Oxford, where he became a prominent teacher, administrator, and public voice for literature.
1 Audiobook
The Retreat from Mons
by George Stuart Gordon
About the author
Born in Falkirk in 1881, George Stuart Gordon studied at the University of Glasgow and then at Oriel College, Oxford, where he earned top honors in classics. He soon became a Fellow of Magdalen College, beginning a career that joined rigorous scholarship with a strong belief in the cultural importance of English literature.
Gordon taught as Professor of English Literature at the University of Leeds from 1913 to 1922, then returned to Oxford as Merton Professor of English Literature. He later served as President of Magdalen College, was Oxford Professor of Poetry from 1933 to 1938, and became Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford from 1938 to 1941.
He is remembered less as a novelist than as an influential literary scholar and academic leader who argued that English literature could have a broad, positive influence on public life. Gordon died in Oxford on March 12, 1942.