E. J. Kenney
{{Short description|British Latinist (1924–2019)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox academic
| name = Edward John Kenney
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| birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1924|02|29}}
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| death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|2019|12|23|1924|02|29}}
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| education = Christ's Hospital
Trinity College, Cambridge
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| discipline = Classics
| sub_discipline = Latin Literature
Textual Criticism
| workplaces = Peterhouse, Cambridge
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| main_interests = Ovid
Lucretius
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Edward John Kenney {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|FBA}} (29 February 1924 – 23 December 2019), usually known as E. J. Kenney, was a British Latinist who served as the Kennedy Professor of Latin until his retirement in 1984. Specialising in transmission and textual criticism, he was considered a leading expert on the work of Ovid and Lucretius.{{cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/happy-birthday-professor-e-j-kenney-88-6flgmh9jm65|website=The Times|title=Happy Birthday Professor E. J. Kenney, 88|access-date= 11 December 2019}} He spent the majority of his career at Cambridge University, where he was an emeritus fellow of Peterhouse until his death in 2019.{{cite web|url=https://www.classics.cam.ac.uk/news/ted-kenney|title=Ted Kenney|website=Faculty of Classics|date=2 January 2020 |access-date=2 January 2020}}
Biography
Kenney was educated at Christ's Hospital in Horsham, West Sussex. During the Second World War, he served in the Royal Corps of Signals in Britain and India. He then went on to read Classics at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was awarded a BA in 1949.{{cite book|url=https://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-22896|publisher=Who's Who 2020|title= Kenney, Professor Edward John|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U22896 |isbn=978-0-19-954088-4 |access-date= 11 December 2019}}
After a brief spell as assistant lecturer at the University of Leeds, Kenney returned to Cambridge, first as a research fellow at Trinity College and from 1953 as a fellow of Peterhouse.{{cite web|url=https://www.pet.cam.ac.uk/people/professor-e-j-kenney|website=Peterhouse, Cambridge|title=Professor E J Kenney|access-date=11 December 2019}} In 1974, he was named the seventh Kennedy Professor of Latin, an appointment which he held until his retirement in 1982.
In addition to his post at Cambridge, Kenney has held visiting positions at Harvard and Berkeley. From 1959 to 1965 he served as the editor of Classical Quarterly, while the British Academy elected him to a fellowship in 1968.{{cite web|url=https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/fellows/edward-kenney-FBA| website=British Academy| title= Professor Edward Kenney|access-date= 11 December 2019}} He was elected foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1976.{{cite web|author= |url=https://www.knaw.nl/en/members/foreign-members/4347 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200125153626/https://www.knaw.nl/en/members/foreign-members/4347 |title=Edward Kenney |publisher=Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences |date= |archive-date=25 January 2020}}
He was known for his exacting but constructive criticism. When interviewing candidates for admittance to the college, he would assess them using the "Fufu test". His pet cat Fufu would be on the candidate's chair and they would be judged by the manner in which they treated it. The more kindly they treated the cat, the more likely they were to be admitted.
Selected publications
- P.Ovidi Nasonis: Amores; Medicamina Faciei Femineae; Ars Amatoria; Remedia Amoris, Oxford, 1961.
- Ovidiana Graeca, with P. E. Easterling, Cambridge Philological Society, 1965.
- Lucretius: De Rerum Natura III, Cambridge, 1971, 2014².
- The Cambridge History of Classical Literature II: Latin Literature, (ed.) with W. V. Clausen, Cambridge, 1982.
- Apuleius: Amor and Psyche, Cambridge, 1990.
References
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{{s-bef|before= C.O. Brink}}
{{s-ttl|title=Kennedy Professor of Latin Cambridge University|years=1974–1982}}
{{s-aft|after=Michael Reeve}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kenney, Edward John}}
Category:Members of the University of Cambridge faculty of classics
Category:Fellows of the British Academy
Category:Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
Category:People educated at Christ's Hospital