Sir John Frank Kermode (29 November 1919 — 17 August 2010

) was a highly regarded British literary critic best known for his seminal critical work Studies in the Theory of Fiction, published in 1967 (revised 2003).

Kermode was known for many works of criticism; and also as editor of the popular Fontana Modern Masters series of introductions to individual modern thinkers. He was a regular contributor to the London Review of Books and The New York Review of Books.

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 subsequently pursued an academic career, becoming Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English Literature at University College London from 1967 to 1974. Under Kermode, the UCL English Department chaired a series of graduate seminars which broke new ground by introducing for the first time contemporary French critical theory to Britain.

In 1974, Kermode took the position of King Edward VII Professor of English Literature at Cambridge University. He resigned the post in 1982, at least in part because of the acrimonious tenure debate surrounding Colin MacCabe. He then moved to Columbia University, where he was Julian Clarence Levi Professor Emeritus in the Humanities.From 1975 to 1976 Kermode was the Norton professor at Harvard University.

He was knighted in 1991.

This author page uses material from the Wikipedia article "Frank Kermode", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0