Name D. Smith | Died 1962 | |
David Nichol Smith FBA (16 September 1875 - 18 January 1962) was a Scottish literary scholar and Merton Professor of English Literature at Oxford University.
David Nichol Smith (1875–1962) was born in Edinburgh and educated at George Watson's College, the University of Edinburgh and the Sorbonne. For a few years he edited school textbooks before becoming Professor of English at Armstrong College, Newcastle upon Tyne, in 1904. In 1908 he was appointed Reader in English at Oxford University and he lived at Oxford for the rest of his life. In 1921 he was elected Fellow of Merton College and from 1929 to 1946 he was Merton Professor of English. In his retirement he travelled widely and he was Professor of English at Adelaide University in 1950–51.
... Already in 1937 when he came out to Toronto to give the Alexander Lectures, he was able to arrange thereafter a sort of triumphal progress through the United States, visiting his pupils who were strategically placed across the whole continent. He followed their careers with the greatest interest, and always welcomed them back to his study in 20 Merton Street, where one was sometimes surprised to learn the latest news of what was happening in universities in California or Australia.