Professorships Held by the Inklings

a complete list of their incumbents

Oxford University

Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon
(Rawlinsonian to 1916)
1795-1800	Charles Mayo (1767-1858)
1800-1803	Thomas Hardcastle
1803-1808	James Ingram (1774-1850)
1808-1812	J(ohn) J(osias) Conybeare (1779-1824)
1812-1816	Charles Dyson (1788-1860)
1817-1822	Thomas Silver (d. 1853)
1822-1827	Charles John Ridley
1827-1829	Arthur Johnson
1829-1834	Francis Pearson Walesby (1798-1858)
1834-1839	R(obert) M(eadows) White (1798-1865)
1839-1844	Henry Bristow Wilson (1803-1888)
1844-1849	W(illiam) E(dward) Buckley (1817-1892)
1849-1854	John Earle (1824-1903)
1858-1876	Joseph Bosworth (1789-1876)
1876-1903	John Earle (1824-1903)
1903-1916	Arthur S(ampson) Napier (1853-1916)
1916-1925	Sir William A(lexander) Craigie (1867-1957)
1925-1945	J(ohn) R(onald) R(euel) Tolkien (1892-1973)
1946-1963	C(harles) L(esley) Wrenn (1895-1969)
1963-1974	A(listair) Campbell (1907-1974)
1977-1991	Eric Gerald Stanley (1923-2018)
1991-2013	Malcolm (Reginald) Godden (1945- )
2013-	(Andrew Philip McDowell) "Andy" Orchard (1964- )

Merton Professor of English Language and Literature
1885-1916	Arthur S(ampson) Napier (1853-1916)
1920-1945	Henry Cecil (Kennedy) Wyld (1870-1945)
1945-1959	J(ohn) R(onald) R(euel) Tolkien (1892-1973)
1959-1980	Norman Davis (1913-1989)
1984-2014	Suzanne Romaine (1951- )
2018-	Helen (Wenda) Small (1964- )

Merton Professor of English Literature
1904-1922	Sir Walter (Alexander) Raleigh (1861-1922)
1922-1928	George (Stuart) Gordon (1881-1942)
1929-1946	D(avid) Nichol Smith (1875-1962)
1947-1957	F(rank) P(ercy) Wilson (1889-1963)
1957-1966	Nevill (Henry Kendall Aylmer) Coghill (1899-1980)
1966-1975	Dame Helen (Louise) Gardner (1908-1986)
1976-2002	John Carey (1934- )
2002-2014	David G.E. Norbrook (1950- )
2016-	Lorna (Margaret) Hutson (1958- )

Goldsmiths' Professor of English Literature
(Reader before 1948)
1908-1929	D(avid) Nichol Smith (1875-1962)
1930-1935	Percy Simpson (1865-1962)
1935-1938	Lascelles Abercrombie (1881-1938)
1939-1947	H(erbert) F(rancis) B(rett) Brett-Smith (1884-1951)
1948-1970	Lord (Edward Christian) David (Gascoyne) Cecil (1902-1986)
1970-1984	Richard (David) Ellmann (1918-1987)
1984-1998	Emrys (Lloyd) Jones (1931-2012)
1998-2008	Dame Hermione Lee (1948- )
2010-2021	Laura Marcus (1956-2021)
2023-	Peter Boxall (1969- )

J.R.R. Tolkien Professor of English Language and Literature
(Merton Professor of English Language to 1979)
1961-1979	E(ric) J(ohn) Dobson (1913-1984)
1980-1997	Douglas Gray (1930-2017)
1998-2003	Paul (Holzworth) Strohm (1938- )
2004-2021	Vincent (Anthony) Gillespie (1954- )
2022-	Marion Turner (1976- )

Professor of Poetry
(with books of their lectures)
1.	1708-1718	Joseph Trapp (1679-1747)	Praelections Poeticae (1711-19), trans. as Lectures on Poetry (1742)
2.	1718-1728	Thomas Warton (1688?-1745)
3.	1728-1738	Joseph Spence (1699-1768)
4.	1738-1741	John Whitfield
5.	1741-1751	Robert Lowth (1710-1787)	De Sacra Poesi Hebraeorum (1753), trans. as Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews (1787)
6.	1751-1756	William Hawkins (1722-1801)	Praelectiones Poeticae in Schola Naturalis Philosophiae (1758)
7.	1757-1766	Thomas Warton (1728-1790)
8.	1766-1776	Benjamin Wheeler (1733?-1783)
9.	1776-1783	John Randolph (1749-1813)	Praelectiones Academicae in Homerum (1870)
10.	1783-1793	Robert Holmes (1748-1805)
11.	1793-1801	James Hurdis (1763-1801)	Lectures showing the Several Sources of that Pleasure which the Human Mind Receives from Poetry (1797)
12.	1802-1812	Edward Copleston (1776-1849)	Praelectiones Academicae Oxonii Habitae (1813)
13.	1812-1821	J(ohn) J(osias) Conybeare (1779-1824)
14.	1821-1831	H(enry) H(art) Milman (1791-1868)
15.	1831-1841	John Keble (1792-1866)	Di Poeticae Vi Medica (1844), trans. as Keble's Lectures on Poetry (1912)
16.	1842-1852	James Garbett (1802-1879)	De Rei Poeticae Idea (1843); De Re Critica Praelectiones Oxonii Habitae (1847)
17.	1852-1857	Thomas Legh Claughton (1808-1892)
18.	1857-1867	Matthew Arnold (1822-1888)	On Translating Homer (1861-62); On the Study of Celtic Literature (1867)
19.	1867-1877	Sir Francis Hastings (Charles) Doyle, Bt. (1810-1888)	Lectures Delivered Before the University of Oxford (1869-77)
20.	1877-1885	John Campbell Shairp (1819-1885)	Aspects of Poetry (1881)
21.	1885-1895	Francis Turner Palgrave (1824-1897)	Landscape in Poetry (1897)
22.	1895-1900	William John Courthope (1842-1917)	Life in Poetry (1901)
23.	1901-1906	A(ndrew) C(ecil) Bradley (1851-1935)	Oxford Lectures on Poetry (1909)
24.	1906-1911	J(ohn) W(illiam) Mackail (1859-1945)	The Springs of Helicon (1909); Lectures on Greek Poetry (1910); Lectures on Poetry (1911)
25.	1911-1916	Sir (Thomas) Herbert Warren (1853-1930)
	1916-1920	vacant
26.	1920-1923	W(illiam) P(aton) Ker (1855-1923)	The Art of Poetry (1923); Form and Style in Poetry (1928)
27.	1923-1928	Heathcote William Garrod (1878-1960)	The Profession of Poetry and Other Lectures(1929)
28.	1928-1933	Ernest de Selincourt (1870-1943)	Oxford Lectures on Poetry (1934)
29.	1933-1938	George (Stuart) Gordon (1881-1942)	The Discipline of Letters (1946)
30.	1938-1943	Adam Fox (1883-1977)
	1943-1946	vacant
31.	1946-1951	C(ecil) M(aurice) Bowra (1898-1971)
32.	1951-1956	C(ecil) Day Lewis (1904-1972)
33.	1956-1961	W(ystan) H(ugh) Auden (1907-1973)	The Dyer's Hand (1962)
34.	1961-1966	Robert (Ranke) Graves (1895-1985)	Oxford Addresses on Poetry (1962); Poetic Craft and Principle (1967); On Poetry (1969)
35.	1966-1968	Edmund (Charles) Blunden (1896-1974)
36.	1968-1973	Roy (Broadbent) Fuller (1912-1991)	Owls and Artificers (1971); Professors and Gods (1973)
37.	1973-1978	John (Barrington) Wain (1925-1994)	Professing Poetry (1977)
38.	1979-1984	(Henry) John (Franklin) Jones (1924-2016)
39.	1984-1989	Peter (Chad Tiger) Levi (1931-2000)	The Art of Poetry (1991)
40.	1989-1994	Seamus (Justin) Heaney (1939-2013)	The Redress of Poetry (1995)
41.	1994-1999	James (Martin) Fenton (1949- )	The Strength of Poetry (2001)
42.	1999-2004	Paul (Benedict) Muldoon (1951- )	The End of the Poem (2006)
43.	2004-2009	Christopher (Bruce) Ricks (1933- )	Along Heroic Lines (2021)
44.	2010-2015	Geoffrey (William) Hill (1932-2016)
45.	2015-2019	Simon (Robert) Armitage (1963- )
46.	2019-2023	Alice (Priscilla Lyle) Oswald (1966- )
47.	2023-	A(licia) E(lsbeth) Stallings (1968- )

Cambridge University

Professor of Medieval and Renaissance English
1954-1963	C(live) S(taples) Lewis (1898-1963)
1964-1978	J(ack) A(rthur) W(alter) Bennett (1911-1981)
1978-1988	John E(dgar) Stevens (1921-2002)
1988-1998	(Gillian Lesley) "Jill" Mann (1943- )
1999-2004	(William) James Simpson (1954- )
2004-2014	(Elizabeth) Helen Cooper (1947- )
2016-	Nicolette Zeeman (1956- )

Leeds University

Professor of English Language
(1946-2000: and Medieval English Literature)
(2000-? Professor of Old and Middle English Language and Literature)
[seems to have been discontinued as a specific named post]
1912-1919	F(rederic) W(illiam) Moorman (1872-1919)
1919-1926	J(ohn) R(onald) R(euel) Tolkien (1892-1973) (Lecturer to 1924)
1926-1931	E(ric) V(alentine) Gordon (1896-1938)
1931-1946	Bruce Dickins (1889-1978)
1946-1964	Harold Orton (1898-1975)
1965-1979	Arthur C(lare) Cawley (1913-1993)
1979-1993	T(homas) A(lan) Shippey (1943- )
1993(?)-2008	Joyce (Margaret) Hill (1947- )

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