R. K. Gordon
Robert Kay Gordon (1887–1973) was an English scholar of medieval and early modern English literature and administrator at the University of Alberta in Canada.
In 1913, having graduated from the Universities of University of Toronto and Oxford, Gordon became administrator at the University of Alberta. In 1936 he was appointed as head of the Department of English and became a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada the same year. Between 1943 and 1945, he was elected Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science. He retired from the university in 1950. His colleagues included F. M. Salter, E. Sonet and D. E. Cameron.
Gordon is quoted extensively in The Book of Imaginary Beings by Jorge Luis Borges. In the entry describing the Fastitocalon, Borges includes an extended quote from R.K. Gordon's Anglo Saxon Bestiary.{{cite web|last1=Schwartzman|first1=Kest|title=The Book of Imaginary Beings: Fastitocalon: Chapter 41|url=http://thebookofimaginarybeings.blogspot.com/2011/06/fastitocalon-chapter-41.html|website=The Book of Imaginary Beings|accessdate=20 December 2017|date=14 June 2011}}{{cite book|last1=Borges|first1=Jorge Luis|title=The Book of Imaginary Beings|url=https://archive.org/details/bookofimaginaryb0000borg|url-access=registration|date=1969|publisher=Dutton|location=New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/bookofimaginaryb0000borg/page/96 96]}}
Selected works
Gordon published widely in his field of English literature, displaying a wide range of interest, from Old English poetry and Chaucer to the Scottish novelists Sir Walter Scott and John Galt.
- 1918 (ed. with E. K. Broadus). English Prose from Bacon to Hardy. London. Anthology, [https://archive.org/details/englishprosefrom00broauoft available from the Internet Archive]
- 1920. John Galt. Toronto. [https://archive.org/details/johngalt00gorduoft Available from the Internet Archive]
- 1922. The Song of Beowulf. Translation into English prose. New York. [https://archive.org/details/songofbeowulfren00gorduoft/mode/2up Available from the Internet Archive]
- 1925. Scott's "Tales of a Grandfather". New York: Dutton.
- 1926. Anglo-Saxon Poetry. London and New York. Translations of selected Old English poems. [https://www.usask.ca/english/seafarer/gordtrans.htm Gordon's translation of The Seafarer available online].
- 1964 (ed.). The Story of Troilus: as told by Benoît de Sainte-Maure, Giovanni Boccaccio, Geoffrey Chaucer, Robert Henryson. New York: Dutton. Versions of the Troilus legend by Benoît de Sainte-Maure, Giovanni Boccaccio, Geoffrey Chaucer and Robert Henryson.
References
- [http://www.uofaweb.ualberta.ca/friendsuofa/nav02.cfm?nav02=36281&nav01=35472 Biography, University of Alberta]
- [https://www.ualberta.ca/ALUMNI/history/peoplea-g/50falgordon.htm Notes by F.M. Salter (1950)]
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Category:Canadian academics of English literature
Category:Anglo-Saxon studies scholars
Category:University of Alberta alumni
Category:Translators from Old English
Category:Alumni of the University of Oxford