A. Norman Jeffares

Alexander Norman "Derry" Jeffares AM (/ˈdʒɛfəz/, 11 August 1920 – 1 June 2005) was an Irish literary scholar.

Academic career[edit]

Jeffares took up his first academic appointment at the Department of English at the University of Groningen in 1947^[2] and then moved to the University of Edinburgh in 1948. In 1951, at the very early age of 30, he was appointed to the Jury Chair of English at the University of Adelaide where he stayed until taking up the Chair of English at the University of Leeds in 1957. Finally, he moved to the University of Stirling in 1974. He retired as Emeritus Professor of English in 1985.

A specialist interest throughout his career was the life and works of W. B. Yeats, a subject upon which he was considered a leading authority.

While at Leeds, he was a founder of The Journal of Commonwealth Literature.^[3]

He was the founder of the York Notes series of revision guides, which are still widely used by GCSE and A-Level students.

Honours[edit]

In 1978 he was made an honorary fellow of Trinity College Dublin.^[4] On Australia Day 1988, Jeffares was appointed an Honorary Member of the Order of Australia, "for service to the study of Australian literature overseas".^[5]

In 2013, an edition of the Yeats Annual was dedicated to him.^[6]

Trinity College Dublin: Thirty-Four Drawings and Descriptions, Dublin: Alex, Thom & Co., 1944.

W. B. Yeats: Man and Poet, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1949.

The Scientific Background: A Prose Anthology, London: Pitman, 1958. (with M. Bryn Davies)

Oliver Goldsmith, London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1959. (The British Council, Writers and Their Work no. 107)

The Poetry of W. B. Yeats, London: Edward Arnold, 1961. (Studies in English Literature no. 4)

George Moore, London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1965. (The British Council, Writers and Their Work no. 180)

Congreve: Incognita and the Way of the World, London: Edward Arnold, 1966. (Arnold's English Texts)

Swift, London: Macmillan, 1968. (Modern Judgements series)

A Commentary on the Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats, London: Macmillan, 1968.

The Circus Animals. Essays: Mainly Anglo-Irish, London: Macmillan, 1970.

W. B. Yeats: Profiles in Literature, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1971. (Profiles in Literature series)

A Commentary on the Collected Plays of W. B. Yeats, London: Macmillan, 1975. (with )

A. S. Knowland

Jonathan Swift, London: Longman, 1976. (The British Council, Writers and Their Work no. 248)

Anglo-Irish Literature, London: Macmillan, 1982. (Macmillan History of Literature)

W. B. Yeats. A New Biography, London: Hutchinson, 1988.

A Pocket History of Irish Literature, Dublin: O'Brien Press, 1997.

The Irish Literary Movement, London: National Portrait Gallery, 1998. (Character Sketches series)

Mc Cormack, W. J. (4 June 2005). . The Independent. Retrieved 18 September 2023.

"Obituaries - Professor A. Norman Jeffares"

Maume, Patrick (12 July 2010). . Dictionary of Irish Biography. Retrieved 23 February 2024.

"dib.ie - Jeffares, Alexander Norman"

Newman, Christine (4 June 2005). . The Irish Times. Retrieved 18 September 2023.

"Norman Jeffares dies aged 84"

(14 June 2005). "Obituary - A Norman Jeffares". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 September 2023.