Jon Hunter Spence

{{Infobox writer

| name = Jon Hunter Spence

| image =

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| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{birth date|mf=y|1945|07|30}}

| birth_place =Camilla, Georgia, United States

| death_date= {{death date and age|mf=y|2011|06|20|1945|07|30}}

| death_place = Sydney, Australia

| occupation = author

| language = English

| nationality = American (1945–2011)
Australian (2011)

| education = Tulane University (MA)
King's College London (PhD)

| alma_mater = University of Georgia

| period =

| genre = English literature
Jane Austen

| subject =

| notableworks =Becoming Jane Austen

| spouse = Betsy McShane (1966–1972)

| children =

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}}

Jon Hunter Spence (July 30, 1945 – June 20, 2011) was an American Jane Austen scholar. His 2003 biography, Becoming Jane Austen, was adapted into a feature film starring Anne Hathaway in 2007.

Education

Spence received a BA in English literature at the University of Georgia, an MA at Tulane University, and obtained a PhD from King's College London.{{Cite news|url=http://www.smh.com.au/national/obituaries/austen-expert-the-best-of-company-20110729-1i4c1.html |title=Austen expert 'the best of company' |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=July 30, 2011 |accessdate=February 13, 2012}} He returned to teach at Georgia, and later taught at King Saud University in Saudi Arabia and Hiroshima University and Doshisha University in Japan. He was a long-standing member of the editorial board of the Jane Austen Society of Australia, became an Australian citizen in May 2011, and committed suicide, at his Sydney home in Double Bay the following month.

Biography

Spence's biography Becoming Jane Austen was published in 2003. University of Wisconsin-Madison English professor Joseph Wiesenfarth noted in a review that the work "is one of the best half-dozen books published on Austen in the last quarter century, at least. It is a remarkably learned book written in a remarkably lucid style and a joy to read. The research is so substantial, wide-ranging, and detailed that any conjecture Spence builds on it has the feel of bedrock itself. His interpretation of Jane Austen’s character and personality as well as of her fiction impresses the reader with his long and intimate acquaintance with the writer and her works."{{cite web |url=http://www.jasna.org/bookrev/br193p23.html |title=Spence, Becoming Jane Austen |publisher=Jasna.org |first=Joseph |last=Wiesenfarth |date=Winter 2003 |accessdate=February 13, 2012 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120626081838/http://www.jasna.org/bookrev/br193p23.html |archivedate=June 26, 2012 }} Wiesenfarth also observed that the book must have required "research in dusty, neglected archives" which he believed then led to "polished and penetrating readings of Austen’s novels along with an evocation of their author’s character".

Becoming Jane Austen was the detailed scholarship which provided the inspiration for the film Becoming Jane which appeared in 2007 and on which he was a consultant.{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/film-obituaries/8635739/Jon-Spence.html |title=Jon Spence |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=July 13, 2011 |accessdate=February 13, 2012}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/3663235/Not-so-plain-Jane.html |title=Not so plain Jane |first=Sally |last=Williams |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=February 17, 2007 |accessdate=February 15, 2012}}

Works

A Century of Wills from Jane Austen's Family, 1705–1806 (2001) (editor)
Becoming Jane Austen (2003 & 2007){{cite book|title=Becoming Jane Austen (9781847250469): Jon Spence: Books |date= 5 May 2007|isbn=978-1847250469 |last1=Spence |first1=Jon |publisher= Bloomsbury Academic}}
Jane Austen's Brother Abroad: The Grand Tour Journals of Edward Austen (2005) (editor)