Robert Woof (scholar)
Encyclopedia
Dr. Robert Samuel Woof was an English
scholar, most famous for having been the first Director of the Wordsworth Trust
and Museums Director of the Wordsworth Museum at Dove Cottage
in Grasmere
, Lake District
, Cumbria
. Dove Cottage is known as the centre for British Romanticism
movement, having been the home of William Wordsworth
from 1799-1808.
The actress Emily Woof
is his daughter.
Early years: attended Scotforth School and Lancaster Royal Grammar School
1949 on a cycling tour: first visit to Dove Cottage
1953: graduation from Pembroke College, Oxford
, where he had studied with a scholarship
1958: married Pamela Moore (two sons, two daughters)
1958-1961: doctorate with Goldsmith Travelling Fellowship as a lecturer at University of Toronto
, PhD thesis on 'The Literary Relations of Wordsworth
and Coleridge
1795-1803'
1961-1962: Lord Adams of Ennerdale
Fellow
1962-1971: Newcastle upon Tyne
University Lecturer
1971-1992: Reader in English Literature at Newcastle upon Tyne University
1983-1984: Leverhulme Fellow
1974-1989: Honorary Keeper of collections of books, manuscripts and paintings at Dove Cottage
1978-1995: Honorary Secretary and Treasurer of Dove Cottage
1982-1988: Vice-Chairman, Drama Panel, Arts Council
1985-1986: Acting Chairman, Drama Panel, Arts Council
1983-1984: Vice-Chairman, Literature Panel
1984-1988: Chairman, Literature Panel
1989-2005: Director, Wordsworth Trust
and Wordsworth museum
1993-2000: Chairman, English Touring Theatre
1998: awarded an Order of the British Empire
: CBE (Commander
of the British Empire
)
2000: fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
scholar, most famous for having been the first Director of the Wordsworth Trust
Wordsworth Trust
The Wordsworth Trust is a living memorial set up to celebrate the works of the poet William Wordsworth and his contemporaries. Wordsworth, conscious of the need for poetry to renew itself within a tradition speaks of writing for 'youthful poets' who 'will be my second self when I am gone.'An...
and Museums Director of the Wordsworth Museum at Dove Cottage
Dove Cottage
Dove Cottage is a house on the edge of Grasmere in the Lake District. It is best known as the home of the poet William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy Wordsworth from December 1799 to May 1808, where they spent over eight years of "plain living, but high thinking"...
in Grasmere
Grasmere
Grasmere is a village, and popular tourist destination, in the centre of the English Lake District. It takes its name from the adjacent lake, and is associated with the Lake Poets...
, Lake District
Lake District
The Lake District, also commonly known as The Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous not only for its lakes and its mountains but also for its associations with the early 19th century poetry and writings of William Wordsworth...
, Cumbria
Cumbria
Cumbria , is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local authority, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's largest settlement and county town is Carlisle. It consists of six districts, and in...
. Dove Cottage is known as the centre for British Romanticism
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
movement, having been the home of William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads....
from 1799-1808.
The actress Emily Woof
Emily Woof
Emily Woof , is an English actress and author, known for her roles in such films as The Full Monty, The Woodlanders, Velvet Goldmine, Wondrous Oblivion, Silent Cry and The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse....
is his daughter.
Biography
Robert Samuel Woof was the youngest of three children; their father was bailiff of Home Farm, part of the Royal Albert Institution, LancasterEarly years: attended Scotforth School and Lancaster Royal Grammar School
Lancaster Royal Grammar School
Lancaster Royal Grammar School is a voluntary aided, selective grammar school for boys in Lancaster, England. The school has been awarded specialist Technology College and Language College status. Old boys belong to The Old Lancastrians...
1949 on a cycling tour: first visit to Dove Cottage
1953: graduation from Pembroke College, Oxford
Pembroke College, Oxford
Pembroke College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, located in Pembroke Square. As of 2009, Pembroke had an estimated financial endowment of £44.9 million.-History:...
, where he had studied with a scholarship
Scholarship
A scholarship is an award of financial aid for a student to further education. Scholarships are awarded on various criteria usually reflecting the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award.-Types:...
1958: married Pamela Moore (two sons, two daughters)
1958-1961: doctorate with Goldsmith Travelling Fellowship as a lecturer at University of Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, PhD thesis on 'The Literary Relations of Wordsworth
William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads....
and Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, Romantic, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla...
1795-1803'
1961-1962: Lord Adams of Ennerdale
Ennerdale
Ennerdale may refer to:* Ennerdale, Gauteng, a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa* Ennerdale Water, a lake in the Lake District in England**Ennerdale Bridge, a nearby settlement...
Fellow
1962-1971: Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
University Lecturer
1971-1992: Reader in English Literature at Newcastle upon Tyne University
1983-1984: Leverhulme Fellow
1974-1989: Honorary Keeper of collections of books, manuscripts and paintings at Dove Cottage
1978-1995: Honorary Secretary and Treasurer of Dove Cottage
1982-1988: Vice-Chairman, Drama Panel, Arts Council
1985-1986: Acting Chairman, Drama Panel, Arts Council
1983-1984: Vice-Chairman, Literature Panel
1984-1988: Chairman, Literature Panel
1989-2005: Director, Wordsworth Trust
Wordsworth Trust
The Wordsworth Trust is a living memorial set up to celebrate the works of the poet William Wordsworth and his contemporaries. Wordsworth, conscious of the need for poetry to renew itself within a tradition speaks of writing for 'youthful poets' who 'will be my second self when I am gone.'An...
and Wordsworth museum
1993-2000: Chairman, English Touring Theatre
1998: awarded an Order of the British Empire
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
: CBE (Commander
Commander
Commander is a naval rank which is also sometimes used as a military title depending on the individual customs of a given military service. Commander is also used as a rank or title in some organizations outside of the armed forces, particularly in police and law enforcement.-Commander as a naval...
of the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
)
2000: fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
Royal Society of Literature
The Royal Society of Literature is the "senior literary organisation in Britain". It was founded in 1820 by George IV, in order to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". The Society's first president was Thomas Burgess, who later became the Bishop of Salisbury...
Books
- Robert Woof; William Wordsworth: Critical Heritage(Critical Heritage S.), RoutledgeRoutledgeRoutledge is a British publishing house which has operated under a succession of company names and latterly as an academic imprint. Its origins may be traced back to the 19th-century London bookseller George Routledge...
, an imprint of Taylor & Francis Books Ltd - 22 November 2001, ISBN 978-0-415-03441-8, Hardcover
- Michael Broughton; William Clarke; John Murdoch; Joanna Selbourne; Greg Smith; Robert Woof; The Spooner Collection of British Watercolours, Wordsworth Trust, GrasmereGrasmereGrasmere is a village, and popular tourist destination, in the centre of the English Lake District. It takes its name from the adjacent lake, and is associated with the Lake Poets...
31 January 2006 ISBN 978-1-905256-03-7
- Jean-Paul Martinon; Hamish Robinson; Daniel Sturgis; Rebecca O'Connor; Robert Woof; Daniel Buren: At the Wordsworth Trust, Wordsworth Trust, GrasmereGrasmereGrasmere is a village, and popular tourist destination, in the centre of the English Lake District. It takes its name from the adjacent lake, and is associated with the Lake Poets...
September, 2005 ISBN 978-1-905256-01-3
- Robert Woof; Treasures of the Wordsworth Trust: Published to Celebrate the Opening of the Jerwood Centre at the Wordsworth Trust by Seamus Heaney, 2 June 2005, Wordsworth Trust, GrasmereGrasmereGrasmere is a village, and popular tourist destination, in the centre of the English Lake District. It takes its name from the adjacent lake, and is associated with the Lake Poets...
June, 2005 ISBN 978-1-905256-00-6 (Hardcover: ISBN 978-1-905256-04-4)
- Daniel Sturgis; Matthew Collings; Kathy Kubicki; Robert Woof; Abstract Logic, Wordsworth Trust, GrasmereGrasmereGrasmere is a village, and popular tourist destination, in the centre of the English Lake District. It takes its name from the adjacent lake, and is associated with the Lake Poets...
May 2005 ISBN 978-1-870787-99-4
- Conrad Atkinson; Richard Cork; Henry Shukman; Robert Woof; Common Sights, Wordsworth Trust, GrasmereGrasmereGrasmere is a village, and popular tourist destination, in the centre of the English Lake District. It takes its name from the adjacent lake, and is associated with the Lake Poets...
January, 2005 ISBN 978-1-870787-89-5
- Keith Coventry; Des Lawrence; Matthew Hollis; Joan Key; Kay Rosen; Lily van der Stokker; Daniel Sturgis; Robert Woof; Between Letters and Abstraction, Wordsworth Trust, GrasmereGrasmereGrasmere is a village, and popular tourist destination, in the centre of the English Lake District. It takes its name from the adjacent lake, and is associated with the Lake Poets...
January, 2005 ISBN 978-1-870787-97-0
- Jack Mapanje; Simon Morley; Robert Woof; An Elegy Wrote in an English Churchyard, Wordsworth Trust, GrasmereGrasmereGrasmere is a village, and popular tourist destination, in the centre of the English Lake District. It takes its name from the adjacent lake, and is associated with the Lake Poets...
, January, 2005 ISBN 978-1-870787-86-4
- Christopher Bucklow; Marina Warner; Roger Malbert; Adam Phillips; Robert Woof; If This Be Not I, Wordsworth Trust, GrasmereGrasmereGrasmere is a village, and popular tourist destination, in the centre of the English Lake District. It takes its name from the adjacent lake, and is associated with the Lake Poets...
June, 2003 ISBN 978-1-870787-95-6
- Robert Woof; co-editor with Alice OswaldAlice Oswald-Career:Oswald read Classics at New College, Oxford, has worked as a gardener at Chelsea Physic Garden, and today lives with her husband, the playwright Peter Oswald , and her three children in Devon, in the South-West of England....
and Peter OswaldPeter OswaldPeter Osvald is a well-known English playwright. He is married to the poet Alice Oswald, with whom he has three children. They live in Devon, South West England....
; Earth Has Not Any Thing to Shew More Fair: A Bicentennial Celebration of Wordsworth's Sonnet Composed upon Westminster Bridge (co-editor with Alice OswaldAlice Oswald-Career:Oswald read Classics at New College, Oxford, has worked as a gardener at Chelsea Physic Garden, and today lives with her husband, the playwright Peter Oswald , and her three children in Devon, in the South-West of England....
and Peter OswaldPeter OswaldPeter Osvald is a well-known English playwright. He is married to the poet Alice Oswald, with whom he has three children. They live in Devon, South West England....
) Shakespeare's GlobeShakespeare's GlobeShakespeare's Globe is a reconstruction of the Globe Theatre, an Elizabethan playhouse in the London Borough of Southwark, located on the south bank of the River Thames, but destroyed by fire in 1613, rebuilt 1614 then demolished in 1644. The modern reconstruction is an academic best guess, based...
& The WordsworthWilliam WordsworthWilliam Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads....
Trust, 2002 ISBN 978-1-870787-84-0
- Robert Woof; English poetry 850-1850: The first thousand years : with some romantic perspectives, Wordsworth Trust, GrasmereGrasmereGrasmere is a village, and popular tourist destination, in the centre of the English Lake District. It takes its name from the adjacent lake, and is associated with the Lake Poets...
2000 ISBN 978-1-870787-70-3
- Robert Woof; Romantic icons: The National Portrait Gallery at Dove Cottage, Grasmere, Wordsworth Trust, GrasmereGrasmereGrasmere is a village, and popular tourist destination, in the centre of the English Lake District. It takes its name from the adjacent lake, and is associated with the Lake Poets...
1999 ISBN 978-1-870787-60-4
- Robert Woof; Stephen Hebron; Towards Tintern Abbey: Bicentenary of "Lyrical Ballads", 1798, The Wordsworth Trust, GrasmereGrasmereGrasmere is a village, and popular tourist destination, in the centre of the English Lake District. It takes its name from the adjacent lake, and is associated with the Lake Poets...
July, 1998 ISBN 978-1-870787-55-0
- Robert Woof; Fay Godwin; A Perfect Republic of Shepherds, Wordsworth Trust, GrasmereGrasmereGrasmere is a village, and popular tourist destination, in the centre of the English Lake District. It takes its name from the adjacent lake, and is associated with the Lake Poets...
June 1997 ISBN 978-1-870787-30-7
- Robert Woof, Stephen Hebron; John KeatsJohn KeatsJohn Keats was an English Romantic poet. Along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, he was one of the key figures in the second generation of the Romantic movement, despite the fact that his work had been in publication for only four years before his death.Although his poems were not...
, Wordsworth Trust, GrasmereGrasmereGrasmere is a village, and popular tourist destination, in the centre of the English Lake District. It takes its name from the adjacent lake, and is associated with the Lake Poets...
1995 ISBN 978-1-870787-15-4
- Robert Woof; Shelley: An Ineffectual Angel?, Wordsworth Trust, GrasmereGrasmereGrasmere is a village, and popular tourist destination, in the centre of the English Lake District. It takes its name from the adjacent lake, and is associated with the Lake Poets...
December, 1992 ISBN 978-1-870787-00-0
- Robert Woof; Tennyson, 1809-1892: A Centenary Celebration, Tennyson Society, July, 1992 ISBN 978-0-901958-30-3
- Robert Woof; Artist as Evacuee: Royal College of Art in the Lake District 1940-1945, Wordsworth Trust, GrasmereGrasmereGrasmere is a village, and popular tourist destination, in the centre of the English Lake District. It takes its name from the adjacent lake, and is associated with the Lake Poets...
December, 1987 ISBN 978-0-9510616-3-3
- Wordsworth, Jonathan; Jaye, Michael C., Robert Woof; William Wordsworth and the Age of English Romanticism, Rutgers Univ Pr, Piscataway, New JerseyNew JerseyNew Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
, U.S.A., 1987 ISBN 978-0-8135-1274-7
- Robert Woof; John Murdoch; The Discovery of the Lake District: A Northern Arcadia and Its Uses, Faber & Faber, October 1986 ISBN 978-0-905209-96-8
- David Thomason, Robert Woof; Derwentwater - The Vale of Elysiums: An Eighteenth Century Story, Wordsworth Trust, GrasmereGrasmereGrasmere is a village, and popular tourist destination, in the centre of the English Lake District. It takes its name from the adjacent lake, and is associated with the Lake Poets...
December, 1986 ISBN 978-0-9510616-2-6
- Robert Woof; Thomas De Quincey: An English Opium Eater 1785-1859, Wordsworth Trust, GrasmereGrasmereGrasmere is a village, and popular tourist destination, in the centre of the English Lake District. It takes its name from the adjacent lake, and is associated with the Lake Poets...
December, 1985 ISBN 978-0-9510616-0-2
- Robert Woof; Wordsworth Circle: Studies of Twelve Members of Wordsworth's Circle of Friends, Trustees of Dove Cottage, GrasmereGrasmereGrasmere is a village, and popular tourist destination, in the centre of the English Lake District. It takes its name from the adjacent lake, and is associated with the Lake Poets...
July, 1979 ISBN 978-0-9501238-4-4
External links
- Site of the Wordsworth Trust
- obituary in the Guardian (November 2005)