18 Facts About Frank Kermode

Sir John Frank Kermode, FBA was a British literary critic best known for his 1967 work The Sense of an Ending: Studies in the Theory of Fiction and for his extensive book-reviewing and editing.

Frank Kermode was the Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English Literature at University College London and the King Edward VII Professor of English Literature at Cambridge University.

Frank Kermode was a regular contributor to the London Review of Books and The New York Review of Books.

Frank Kermode was born on the Isle of Man, the only son and elder child of John Pritchard Frank Kermode and Doris Pearl, nee Kennedy.

Frank Kermode's father was a delivery truck driver and warehouseman for a ferry company, and his mother, a "farm girl", had been a waitress.

Frank Kermode's father, on returning from serving in the First World War, finding there now to be no family business, "took temporary jobs and then got what he thought was a job that would see him through, as a storekeeper and he stayed in that for the rest of his career".

Frank Kermode's father retired after the Second World War, both he and his wife coming to be in poor health; Frank Kermode's mother suffered from dementia, and his father was "an extreme diabetic", dying from diabetes while resident in a retirement home.

Frank Kermode, having come first in the examinations allowing attendance, was educated at Douglas High School for Boys and the University of Liverpool.

Frank Kermode served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War, for six years in total, much of it in Iceland.

Frank Kermode began his academic career as a lecturer at King's College, Durham University, in 1947.

Frank Kermode later taught at the University of Reading from 1949, where he produced the Arden edition of Shakespeare's The Tempest.

Frank Kermode held professorships at the University of Manchester and the University of Bristol, before being appointed to the Lord Northcliffe chair at University College London in 1967.

Frank Kermode was a contributor for several years to the literary and political magazine Encounter and in 1965 became co-editor.

Frank Kermode resigned within two years, once it became clear that the magazine was funded by the CIA.

In 1974, Frank Kermode took the position of King Edward VII Professor of English Literature at Cambridge University.

Frank Kermode resigned the post in 1982, at least in part because of the acrimonious tenure debate surrounding Colin MacCabe.

Frank Kermode then moved to Columbia University, where he was Julian Clarence Levi Professor Emeritus in the Humanities.

Frank Kermode was married to Maureen Eccles from 1947 to 1970.