Mary Lascelles
Mary Lascelles FBA | |
---|---|
Born | 7 February 1900 |
Died | 10 December 1995 95) | (aged
Nationality | British |
Awards | Rose Mary Crawshay Prize, British Academy (1940 and 1980) |
Academic background | |
Education | Sherborne School for Girls |
Alma mater | Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford |
Academic work | |
Discipline | English Literature |
Sub discipline |
Mary Madge Lascelles, FBA (7 February 1900 – 10 December 1995) was a British literary scholar, specialising in Jane Austen, Shakespeare, Samuel Johnson, and Walter Scott.[1] She was Vice-Principal of Somerville College, Oxford, from 1947 to 1960, and a University Lecturer then Reader in English Literature 1960 from to 1967 at the University of Oxford.[2][3]
Early life and education
Lascelles was born on 7 February 1900 on Grenada, then a British colony, to William Horace Lascelles and Madeline Lascelles (née Barton).[1][2] Her paternal grandfather was Henry Lascelles, 4th Earl of Harewood.[4] When she was three, her family moved back to England, where they lived successively in Monmouth, Suffolk, and then Norfolk.[1] She only learnt to read at the age of eight, having previously been read to by her parents.[1] Her early education was by governess, before attending Sherborne School for Girls, an independent boarding school, from the age of 15.[1][2]
In 1919, Lascelles matriculated into Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, then an all-girls college of the University of Oxford, to study English.[1][3] Her tutor was Janet Spens, though she also attended lectures by Walter Raleigh.[1] She graduated with a first class Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1922; women had only been allowed to graduate with degrees from Oxford since 1920.[1] From 1922, she undertook postgraduate studies under the supervision of George Stuart Gordon.[1] In 1923, she also held a Research Studentship at Westfield College,[2] during which she "had access to an unpublished manuscript of a little-known Scottish version of the Alexander story, Sir Gilbert Haye's Buik of King Alexander the Conqueror" which was held at the British Museum.[1] She completed her Bachelor of Letters (BLitt) degree in 1926.[1] Her thesis was later published as "Alexander and the Earthly Paradise in Mediaeval English Writings" in Medium Ævum.[1][5]
Academic career
After leaving Oxford, Lascelles was briefly a teacher at St Leonards School, an independent school in St Andrews, Scotland.[1] She then moved to Royal Holloway College, London, where she had been appointed assistant lecturer in 1936.[1][2] There, she was required to give 13 lectures a week for the next two years.[1] One of the lecturer course was on Jane Austen.[1]
In 1931, Lascelles moved to Somerville College, Oxford where she had been appointed a tutor in English Language and Literature.[2] The following year, in 1932, she was elected a fellow of Somerville College.[1][3] Her early teaching requirements were focused on "literature from the Middle Ages to 1830".[1] During the Second World War, she continued teaching at Oxford; this included teaching English at Somerville and "lecturing to naval cadets in the men's college".[1] She also acted as secretary to the Home Guard unit based near her parents' home in Norfolk during the long vacations (summer holidays).[1] From 1947 to 1960, she also served as vice-principal of Somerville College under Dame Janet Vaughan.[1][3] In 1960, she was appointed a University Lecturer in English Literature, and thereby had to stop tutoring though she retained her fellowship as a professorial fellow.[1][2] From 1966 to 1967, she was Reader in English Literature.[2][3] In 1967, with her eyesight fading, she retired from full time academia and was appointed an honorary fellow of Somerville College.[1][2]
Later life
Lascelles continued her research after leaving full-time academia. She would go on to publish three more books.[1][2] She died on 10 December 1995 in Cromer, Norfolk, England; she was aged 95.[3]
Honours
Lascelles was awarded the 1940 Rose Mary Crawshay Prize by the British Academy for her book Jane Austen and Her Art (1939).[6] In 1962, she was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and social sciences.[2] In 1982, she was once more awarded the Rose Mary Crawshay Prize, this time for her book The Story-Teller Retrieves the Past (1980).[6]
Selected works
- Lascelles, Mary (1939). Jane Austen and Her Art. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Lascelles, Mary (1953). Shakespeare's Measure for Measure. London: Athlone Press.
- Lascelles, Mary (1968). "Scott and the Art of Revision". In Mack, Maynard; Gregor, Ian. Imagined Worlds: essays on some English novels and novelists in honour of John Butt. London: Methuen. pp. 139–56.
- Lascelles, Mary, ed. (1971). The Works of Samuel Johnson, Vol 9: A Journey to the Western Island of Scotland. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300012514.
- Lascelles, Mary (1973). Notions and Facts: Collected Criticism and Research. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0198120223.
- Lascelles, Mary (1980). The Story-Teller Retrieves the Past: Historical Fiction and Fictitious History in the Art of Scott, Stevenson, Kipling, and Some Others. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0198128021.
Poetry
- Lascelles, Mary (1971). The Adversaries and Other Poems. Cambridge: Rampant Lions Press.
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Lamont, Claire (2001). "Mary Madge Lascelles 1900–1995" (PDF). Proceedings of the British Academy. British Academy. 111: 575–91. Retrieved 20 April 2017.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 "LASCELLES, Mary Madge". Who Was Who. Oxford University Press. April 2014. Retrieved 20 April 2017.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Anderson, Eric (14 December 1995). "OBITUARY: Mary Lascelles". The Independent. Retrieved 20 April 2017.
- ↑ "Hon. William Horace Lascelles". The Peerage. Retrieved 21 April 2017.
- ↑ Lascelles, M. M. (1936). "ALEXANDER AND THE EARTHLY PARADISE IN MEDIÆVAL ENGLISH WRITINGS". Medium Ævum. 5 (1): 31–47. doi:10.2307/43631083. Retrieved 20 April 2017.
- 1 2 "The Rose Mary Crawshay Prize" (pdf). The British Academy. Retrieved 20 April 2017.