Jonathan Wordsworth

He was a great-great-great nephew of William Wordsworth and the great-great-grandson of Christopher Wordsworth, the younger brother of the poet and Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. He was an authority on the work of William Wordsworth on whom he concentrated the bulk of his academic writings.

He was educated at Westminster School and Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1957 he became a Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, where there is now a postgraduate scholarship in his name. He was later Professor of English Literature at St Catherine's College, Oxford.{{cite news|title=Professor Jonathan Wordsworth|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/professor-jonathan-wordsworth-6096870.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220614/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/professor-jonathan-wordsworth-6096870.html |archive-date=14 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|accessdate=2 February 2014|newspaper=The Independent|date=28 June 2006}} He gave the 1969 Chatterton Lecture on Poetry{{cite journal|author=Wordsworth, Jonathan|title=William Wordsworth 1770–1969|journal=Proceedings of the British Academy|year=1971|volume=55|pages=211–228|url=http://publications.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/pubs/proc/files/55p211.pdf}}

His students at Oxford included Martin Amis, Christopher Reid, Craig Raine, Nicholas Roe, N. W. O. Royle, and Robert J.C. Young. He was the Chairman of the Wordsworth Trust (1976–2002) and its President thereafter. He left behind three wives − the literary theorist Ann (Sherratt) Wordsworth, Lucy Newlyn, Professor of English at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, and Jessica Prince; and seven children − four with Ann and three with Jessica including Helen, Giles and Teddy.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/jul/25/guardianobituaries.highereducation|title=Jonathan Wordsworth|work=The Guardian|author=Michael O'Neill|date=24 July 2006}}

His work appeared in the London Review of Books.{{cite news|last=Wordsworth|first=Jonathan|title=Wordsworth in Love|url=http://www.lrb.co.uk/v03/n19/jonathan-wordsworth/wordsworth-in-love|accessdate=2 February 2014|newspaper=The London Review of Books|date=15 October 1981}}

His many critical pieces, innovative editions and books on his famous relative include:

• The Music of Humanity (first published in 1969);
• William Wordsworth: The Borders of Vision Clarendon Press, 1982, {{ISBN|9780198120971}};
• {{cite book|title=William Wordsworth: The Pedlar, Tintern Abbey, the Two-Part Prelude|url=https://archive.org/details/williamwordswort0000word_j6x2|url-access=registration|date=31 January 1985|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-31937-9|pages=[https://archive.org/details/williamwordswort0000word_j6x2/page/1 1]–}};
• William Wordsworth and the Age of English Romanticism Rutgers University Press, 1987, {{ISBN|9780813512730}}

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• [https://web.archive.org/web/20071001051413/http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/article1114450.ece Obituary in the Independent]

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Category:Academics of the University of Oxford

Category:1932 births

Category:2006 deaths

Category:People educated at Westminster School, London

Jonathan

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