Identity area
Reference code
Watson/3
Unique identifier
Title
Date(s)
- 1953 - 1992 (Creation)
Level of description
Series
Extent and medium
3 boxes; 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
The Unservile State Group, in which George Watson served as Editor, was a collective of academics committed to studying and promoting Liberal political values. This series contains three subseries: general documentation pertaining to the group; George Watson's correspondence with members and associated figures; and the correspondence of the Secretary, Bernard Jennings.