Oliver Elton

Oliver Elton,FBA(3 June 1861 – 4 June 1945) was an English literary scholar whose works includeA Survey of English Literature (1730–1880)in six volumes, criticism, biography, and translations from several languages includingIcelandicandRussian.He wasKing Alfred Professorof English atLiverpool University.He also helped set up the Department of English at theUniversity of the Punjab,Lahore,Pakistan.

Early life

Born atHolt, Norfolk,on 3 June 1861, Elton was the only child of Sarah and the Reverend Charles Allen Elton (1820–1887), the headmaster ofGresham's School,where Oliver was taught by his father until he proceeded toMarlborough CollegeandCorpus Christi College, Oxford,where he was a scholar from 1880 to 1885. He graduated with aBAwith first class honours inLiterae Humanioresin 1884.

His friends at Oxford includedLeonard Huxley,Michael SadlerandDugald Sutherland MacColl,whose sister he later married.

Career

Elton's first work was as a tutor and lecturer inLondon,while preparing school editions ofShakespeareandMilton.He translatedEinar Hafliðason'sLaurentius SagaasThe Life of Laurence Bishop of Hólar in Iceland(Lárentíus Kálfsson) into English.In this he was encouraged byFrederick York Powell,whose biography Elton would later publish in 1906.

In 1890 he went as a lecturer toOwens College, Manchester,remaining for ten years.During his time there he published a translation of nine of the books of theGesta DanorumbySaxo Grammaticus,a study ofMichael Drayton,andThe Augustan Ages(1899) which brought him recognition from the academic literary world. Meanwhile, he got to knowCharles Edward Montagueand wrote for theManchester Guardian.

He went toLiverpoolin 1901 as Professor of English Literature and stayed till his retirement in 1925. While there, he completed two-thirds (four volumes) of hisSurvey of English Literatureand lectured and wrote on Milton,Tennyson,Henry James,Chekhovand others.

After retirement he went toHarvardas a visiting professor and later settled in Oxford. He completed theSurvey of English Literature,and published a book on English poetry:The English Muse: a Sketch(1933). He also continued an interest in Russian and otherSlavicliterature (mainly Serbian) which had begun during thefirst world war,and published further translations, notably ofPushkin'sEugene Onegin(1937).

Elton's encyclopedic range is impressive. George Sampson, in theCambridge History of English Literature,brackets him with two of his contemporaries who were also "scholars on the heroic scale of learning":William Paton KerandGeorge Saintsbury.

Family

In 1888 Elton married Letitia Maynard MacColl, the sister of his Oxford friendDugald Sutherland MacColl.Letitia became a children's writer. They had three sons, one of whom was the biologistCharles Sutherland Elton.

References

• George Sampson,The Concise Cambridge History of English Literature(Cambridge University Press,1941)

External links

• Media related toOliver Eltonat Wikimedia Commons
• Works related toOliver Eltonat Wikisource
• Portrait of EltonbyFrancis Dodd
• Works by Oliver EltonatProject Gutenberg
• Works by or about Oliver Eltonat theInternet Archive
• Elton's translation ofThe Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus