J H Alexander

Biography

J. H. Alexander was educated at Campbell College, Belfast, and St Edmund Hall, Oxford, graduating BA in English in 1962 and going on to produce two dissertations: one on medievalism in Walter Scott's poetry (BLitt) and the second entitled 'Literary Reviewing in Five British Periodicals' (DPhil).

He was Sessional Lecturer in English at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon 1966-67, and in 1968 he joined the English Department at the University of Aberdeen, where he taught Honours courses ranging from Chaucer to Beckett, but mostly on British Romantic literature. He retired in 2001 and moved to Oxford.

His books include: three studies of Scott's poetry; 'Reading Wordsworth', an introduction to the major works; an edition of selections from the 'Noctes Ambrosianae'; an edition (with William Baker) of Scott's 'Tales of a Grandfather: The History of France (Second Series)'; another of the same author's 'Bizarro' and 'The Siege of Malta' (with Judy King and Graham Tulloch); several volumes in the Edinburgh Edition of the Waverley Novels; and most recently 'Walter Scott's Books'.

Dr Alexander was founder editor of 'The Scott Newsletter' from 1982 till his retirement, and editor of 'Scottish Literary Journal' from 1991 to 1995. In 2013 he became an Honorary Fellow of the Association for Scottish Literary Studies.

He is currently engaged in textual and annotatory research for the Oxford Edition of the works of Charles Dickens.

A fuller biography can be found in his Amazon Kindle e-book 'Figure 120: A Memoir' (2017).

Education

BA, University of Oxford, 1962 (MA 1966)
BLitt, University of Oxford (1965)
DPhil, University of Oxford (1970)

Areas of Research / Professional Expertise

Nineteenth-century British literature, especially Walter Scott and (most recently) Dickens.

Personal Interests

Looking at paintings from Bellini to Bacon. Listening to music from Monteverdi to Macmillan, and trying to play and sing some of it.

Books

Photos