Identity area
Reference code
Watson/7/2
Unique identifier
Title
Date(s)
- 1946 - 2013 (Creation)
Level of description
Subseries
Extent and medium
1 file; paper
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
George Grimes Watson was born in Brisbane, Australia, on 13 October 1927. He was educated at Brisbane Boys' College and the University of Queensland, where he graduated in 1948 with a degree in English. He secured a scholarship for a second degree and received an English degree from Trinity College, Oxford in 1950; he worked for the European Commission as an interpreter before becoming a lecturer in English at Cambridge in 1959 and a Fellow of St John's College in 1961. He remained at St John's until his death on 2 August 2013.
Watson edited 'The New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature'. As well as producing wide-ranging literary and cultural criticism, he was involved in leftist politics, campaigning as a Liberal candidate in 1959 and 1979 and working as Editor for the Unservile State Group; his political writing often critiques socialism from a liberal perspective.
Repository
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
This subseries collects, in approximate chronological order, invitations, flyers, programmes et cetera for various lectures, events and publications. Items will ultimately be catalogued individually; for now, a list follows.
§
Oxford University Liberal Club term card, Michaelmas 1946
Oxford University Liberal Club term card, Hilary Term 1947
Travellers cheque, 13 April 1951
Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies (Victoria University, Toronto) leaflet, circa 1964
Wilmarth Sheldon Lewis, ‘Thomas Gray, 1716-1771’, 7 May 1971
‘Current Research in French Studies’, circa 1972
‘The Harrowing of Hell’, 2 March 1972
Paul Turner, ed., ‘Browning: Men and Women 1855’, 27 July 1972
Richard Brinsley Sheridan, ‘The Rivals’, dir. Sue Limb and Roy Porter, 31 October-4 November 1972
‘Frankenstein’ adapted by Alexeij Sagerer, circa 14 February 1973
Robert Halsband, ‘Lord Hervey: Eighteenth-Century Courtier’, 24 October 1973
Roger Lonsdale, ‘The Poetry of Thomas Gray: Versions of the Self’, 21 February 1973
Arthur Johnston, ‘The Poetry of William Collins’, 21 November 1973
‘Lord Byron: 22 January 1978-19 April 1824’ catalogue, circa 1974
Robert Ellrodt, ‘Self-Consciousness in Montaigne and Shakespeare’, 5 September 1974
Stephen Heath, ‘The Sociality of Writing’, 5 November 1974
Seamus Heaney, ‘The Fire in the Flint: Reflections on the Poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins’, 11 December 1974
R.L. Brett, ed., ‘Writers and Their Background’, circa 1975
J.A.W. Bennett, ‘From Casaubon to Mr Casaubon: The Rise and Fall of the Renaissance Scholar’, 5 March 1975
John Heath-Stubbs, ‘Artorius’, 28 May 1976
Tom Stoppard, ‘Jumpers’, circa 21 September 1976
Donald Davie, ‘The Literature of Dissent, 1700-1930’, 27 October-1 December 1976
Kathleen Raine, ‘Waste Land, Holy Land’, 8 December 1976
Christopher Wood, ‘Victorian Panorama: Paintings of Victorian Life’, 1976
‘The Harrowing of Hell’, 27 February 1977
Robert Halsband and Isobel Grundy, eds, ‘Lady Mary Wortley Montagu: Essays and Poems’, 10 March 1977
John Casey, ‘T.S. Eliot’, 19 May 1977
Claire Tomalin, ‘Katherine Mansfield and “The New Age”’, 25 February 1978
C.S. Lewis Estate, ‘Song of the Lion’, 15 January 1980
Helen Gardner, ‘Happy Endings’, 11 November 1980
Robert Halsband, ‘”The Rape of the Lock” and Its Illustrations’, 24 July 1980
J.A.W. Bennett Memorial Lectures, 17 February-7 April 1981
Geoffrey Keynes, ‘The Gates of Memory’, 22 October 1981
J.B. Yeats, ‘Letters to His Son W.B. Yeats and Others 1869-1922’, ed. Joseph Hone, 31 May 1983
30th anniversary of ‘Encounter’, 18 October 1983
J.K Galbraith, Roy Jenkins and Richard Wainwright, John Maynard Keynes Centenary Meeting, 1 December 1983
Readings in memory of William Empson, 25 May 1984
‘Critical Quarterly’ anniversary celebration, 30 May 1984
Endellion String Quartet recital for Robin Orr’s 75th birthday. 1 November 1984
William Holding, ‘Nobel Lecture’ publication, 1984
‘Cecil Beaton and Friends’ 28 May 1985
‘Renaissance Studies in Honor of Craig Hugh Smyth’, 23 July 1985
Frank Kermode, ‘The Uses of Error’, 11 May 1986
'An Evening with Samuel Pepys' at Magdalene College, Cambridge, 1 October 1986
Opening of the Fisher Building, St John's, 16 June 1988
‘English Manuscript Studies 1100-1700’, September 1988
John Stevens, ‘Music & Poetry from the Trouvères to Purcell’, 6 November 1988
‘Cambridge English’ lectures, 23 January-6 March 1989
‘Forms and Attention: The Work of Frank Kermode’, 18-19 March 1989
T.S. Eliot Memorial Lecture drinks reception and supper, 6 November 1989
Introductory readings of ‘The Duino Elegies’, 17 January-7 March 1991
Party in honour of Douglas Adams on the presentation of his third Golden Pan Award and the publication of ‘Last Chance to See’, 25 November 1991
John Stuart Mill Institute introductory text, circa 1992
John Beer, ‘Against Finality’, 4 February 1993
Bernard Williams, ‘Three Models of Truthfulness’, 5-7 May 1993
Colin Tite, ‘The Manuscript Library of Sir Robert Cotton’ (24 November 1993)
Germaine Greer, J.H. Gray Lectures, 9-13 May 1994
Lord Acton Centenary Celebration Activities, 16 March 1995
Tiepolo exhibition, 5 July 1996-12 January 1997
Joseph Epstein, ‘Anglophilia, American Style’, 24 March 1997
Mervyn King, ‘The New Monetary Policy Committee’, 16 November 1998
C.S. Lewis centenary readings, 24 November 1998
NiL Éditions catalogue général 1999
R.D. Gray and N. Boyle, ‘An Evening with Goethe & Eckermann’, 10 March 1999
L'Assemblée générale annuelle de l'ALEPS, 14 March 2000
Jonathan Smith, ‘The Learning Game’, 6 April 2000
John Barton, Faculty of Classics Corbett Lecture, 17-18 November 2002
‘The(e)ories: Advanced Seminars for Queer Research 2003’ call for papers, 2003
Election of the Chancellor of the University of Oxford, 14-15 March 2003
Itinerary for George Watson’s visit to Loretto Senior School, Musselburgh, 17-19 May 2004
Noah Charney, ‘Mr and Mrs Andrews’, 10-14 May 2005
Hugh Trevor-Roper centenary celebration, 11 January 2014