Kermode, Frank, 1919-2010

Sir Frank Kermode was one of the most distinguished literary critics of his time. Co-editor of the magazine ENCOUNTER with Melvin J. Lasky from around 1958 to 1967, he resigned after learning in 1967 of the covert CIA funding of the magazine. He is best known for his studies of Shakespeare (1963-1965) and D. H. Lawrence (1973), his editorship of THE OXFORD ANTHOLOGY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE (2 vols., 1973), and his provocative studies THE SENSE OF AN ENDING (1967), THE GENESIS OF SECRECY (1979), and THE ART OF TELLING (1983). Kermode's memoir, NOT ENTITLED, was published in 1995, and his selection of essays, PIECES OF MY MIND, appeared in 2003. He was knighted in 1991. Sir Stephen Harold Spender was an English poet, novelist, and essayist who wrote on themes of social injustice and the class struggle in his work. He was editor of ENCOUNTER from 1953 to 1966.

ENCOUNTER was a controversial British literary magazine, founded in 1953 by poet Stephen Spender and early neoconservative author Irving Kristol. In 1966-1967 it was revealed that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency had subsidized the magazine for more than ten years through the Congress for Cultural Freedom, and that Melvin Lasky, Kermode's co-editor, was a CIA agent. Kermode and Spender both resigned in 1967, proclaiming they had been misled and lied to by Lasky.

From the description of Sir Frank Kermode papers 1951-2005. (Peking University Library). WorldCat record id: 85772734

Epithet: King Edward VII Professor of English Literature University of Cambridge

Title: Knight

British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000000561.0x000138