Literary scholar and author.
Born: 5 December, 1923, in Edinburgh. Died 3 September, 2008, in Cambridge, aged 84.
IAN Jack was a respected scholar of English literature, producing several authoritative editions of the classics. He specialised in the romantic poets – especially Keats and Browning – and lectured and wrote widely on the Brontës.
Jack researched
his subjects meticulously, then placed them in the social conditions of their time, explaining how those conditions fundamentally influenced their writing.
He wrote authoritative studies of a wide variety of English poets; his work on Keats, for example, Keats and the Mirror of Art (1967), demonstrated Jack's intricate knowledge of the poet's life and work and explained how Keats's love of painting had influenced much of his writing.
Jack communicated his passion for English literature to generations of students at Cambridge: he encouraged his students to reassess and reappraise both the standard works and many that were lesser known.
Ian Robert Jack was the son of an Edinburgh solicitor and attended George Watson's College, where his academic brilliance was evidenced by his winning the John Welsh classical scholarship.
He then went to Edinburgh University, graduating in 1945 with a first in English literature, and was appointed James Boswell fellow in 1946.
It was during this time that Jack became an avid bibliophile, spending much of his spare time exploring the antiquarian bookshops in the area around the capital's High Street. It was a passion he was to pursue for the rest of his life.
In 1947, Jack gained a DPhil at Merton College, Oxford. Three years later he was appointed lecturer at Brasenose College, Oxford, where he remained until 1961, when he became a fellow at Pembroke College, Cambridge.
In 1973, he was appointed a professor in the English faculty – a post he was to retain until his retirement in 1989.
During his distinguished career, Jack became an authority on many aspects of English literature. His work on the Brontës was particularly renowned – this was furthered when he edited (in 1969) The Clarendon Edition of all the Brontë novels and with his detailed and explanatory edition of Wuthering Heights in 1976.
Jack was a scrupulous and exacting editor who ensured that all notes and biographical details were beyond doubt. His scholarship was matched by his personal enthusiasm for his subject.
Robert Browning posed a major challenge as his output was so large. It was a hugely ambitious project for Jack to undertake and he oversaw the first five volumes of the Oxford edition of Browning's poems: The Poetical Works of Robert Browning.
His love of poetry extended to modern poets, especially to Dylan Thomas.
Jack, with his swept-back grey hair and wry smile, retained a distinguished and learned appearance into later life.
Jack's love of literature was reflected in his lifelong passion for collecting antiquarian books. His shelves included some particularly fine and rare editions dating back to the early 16th century. One of his great personal joys was to amass a huge collection of ancient Scottish manuscripts, including a complete collection of the Edinburgh Review dating from its founding in Buccleuch Place in 1802.
Jack enjoyed the conviviality of college life and regularly dined at High Table. He was also a cricket enthusiast, often to be seen at Fenners watching the Cambridge Xl, and a keen member of the MCC.
He was also a much-admired lecturer abroad, especially in the United States, and was president of the Charles Lamb Society, the Browning Society and the Johnson Society.
Jack was vice-president of the Brontë Society and was elected a fellow of the British Academy in 1986.
In 1948 Ian Jack married Jane McDonald, with whom he had two sons and a daughter. The marriage was dissolved, and in 1972 he married Elizabeth Crone, with whom he had a son. He is survived by his children and his wife.
The full article contains 651 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
