Una Mary Ellis-Fermor (20 December 1894 – 24 March 1958), who also used the pseudonym Christopher Turnley,[1] was an English literary critic, author and Hildred Carlile Professor of English at Bedford College, London (1947–1958).[2][3] In recognition of her services to London University, there is now an award in her name to provide assistance for research students in the publication of scholarly work, in the fields of English, Irish or Scandinavian drama to which Fermor-Ellis herself had been a notable contributor.[4]
She has been described as "A major contributor to the study of the English Renaissance".[1]
Biography
editEducated at South Hampstead High School,[5] Ellis-Fermor gained an exhibition award to read English at Somerville College, Oxford.[6][7] Here she met and developed a friendly scholarly rivalry with fellow exhibitioner Vera Brittain.[8] In 1918 Ellis-Fermor became a lecturer in English Literature at Bedford College, and in 1930 was awarded the Rose Mary Crawshay prize for English Literature by the British Academy for her work on Christopher Marlowe and her edition of Tamburlaine.[9]
In 1938 Ellis-Fermor published Twenty Two Poems under the pseudonym Christopher Turnley, derived from Marlowe's first name and the middle name of her father, Joseph Turnley Ellis-Fermor.[10]
Appointed the first General Editor of the 2nd series of the Arden Shakespeare in 1946[2] and Hildred Carlile Professor of English Language and Literature at Bedford College in 1947, Ellis-Fermor continued to contribute to the fields of English, Irish and Scandinavian drama (she translated Ibsen for Penguin Books) until her death in 1958.
Major publications
edit- Christopher Marlowe (1927)
- The Jacobean Drama: An Interpretation (1936)
- The Irish Dramatic Movement (1939)
- Masters of Reality (1942)
- The Frontiers of Drama (1945)
- Shakespeare the Dramatist and Other Papers (1961), edited by Kenneth Muir
References
edit- ^ a b "Ellis-Fermor, Una Mary (1894–1958)". Dictionary of Women Worldwide: 25,000 Women Through the Ages. encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 1 March 2017.
- ^ a b Ellis Fermor, Una; Muir, Kenneth (2013). "Introduction". Shakespeare's Drama. Routledge. p. vii. ISBN 9781136560415. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
- ^ "Dr Una Ellis-Fermor: an authority on poetic drama (obituary)". The Times. 25 March 1958. Retrieved 1 March 2017.
- ^ "Una Ellis-Fermor Award" (PDF). Royal Holloway, University of London . Retrieved 20 February 2017.
- ^ Kamm, Josephine (2007). Indicative Past: A Hundred Years of the Girls' Public Day School Trust. Oxon: Routledge. p. 202. ISBN 978-1-134-53174-5.
- ^ "Somerville College". University of Oxford WWI Centenary. 2017. Retrieved 8 March 2017.
- ^ "October 1914: Vera Brittain Arrives for the New Academic Year at Oxford". University of Oxford WWI Centenary. 2017. Retrieved 8 March 2017.
- ^ Gorham, Deborah (1991). "A Woman at Oxford: Vera Brittain's Somerville Experience". Historical Studies in Education. 3 (1): 1–19.
- ^ "Rose Mary Crawshay Prize (pre-2000 winners)" (PDF). British Academy. Retrieved 14 March 2017.
- ^ Room, Adrian (2010). Dictionary of Pseudonyms: 13,000 Assumed Names and Their Origins. North Carolina: McFarland & Co. p. 484. ISBN 978-0786443734.