Kenneth Neill Cameron
Kenneth Neill Cameron | |
|---|---|
| Born | 15 September 1908 |
| Died | 14 March 1994 (aged 85) New York City, United States |
| Occupation | Literary scholar |
| Known for | Studies of Percy Bysshe Shelley and English Romanticism |
| Spouse | Mary Owen Cameron (m. 1945) |
| Children | 1 daughter |
Kenneth Neill Cameron (15 September 1908 – 14 March 1994) was a British-born literary scholar and an authority on the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and the wider circle of English Romantic writers.[1][2]
Early life
[edit]Cameron was born in Barrow-in-Furness, England, and emigrated to Canada with his family at the age of five.[1] He graduated from McGill University in Montreal in 1931. Later Cameron studied at Pembroke College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, before earning his doctorate at the University of Wisconsin in 1939.[1][2] He became interested academically in Shelley during his Oxford years.[1]
Academic career
[edit]Cameron taught in the English Department at Indiana University from 1939 to 1952. His biography The Young Shelley: Genesis of a Radical (1950) redefined Shelley studies by linking the poet’s work to its historical and political context.[1] In 1952 he joined the Carl H. Pforzheimer Library in New York as editor of Shelley and His Circle, overseeing the acquisition and publication of its first four volumes between 1961 and 1970.[1][2]
In 1963 Cameron became Professor of English at New York University, where he remained until his retirement as emeritus professor in 1975.[1] His later works included Shelley: The Golden Years (1974) and several Marxist studies such as Marx and Engels Today (1976) and Marxism: The Science of Society (1985).[1][2]
Later life and death
[edit]Cameron was awarded an honorary doctorate by McGill University in 1971 and received the first Distinguished Scholar Award from the Keats-Shelley Association of America in 1982.[1] He died of pneumonia in New York City on 14 March 1994, aged 85. He was survived by his wife, Mary Owen Cameron, a daughter and two grandchildren.[2]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g h i Fischer, Doucet Devin (26 March 1994). "Obituary: Professor Kenneth Neill Cameron". The Independent. Retrieved 10 November 2025.
- ^ a b c d e Saxon, Wolfgang (16 March 1994). "Kenneth Neill Cameron, 85, Dies; Scholar of Shelley and His Circle". The New York Times. Retrieved 10 November 2025.
