English Literature

The teaching of English literature at Edinburgh University began with the Creation of the Chair of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres in 1760. At over 250 years old, Edinburgh University has the longest established English Department in the world.

Professors of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres

• 1760-1784: Hugh Blair (1718-1800)
• 1784-1798: William Greenfield (1755-1827
• 1801-1834: Andrew Brown (1763-1834)
• 1835-1840: George Moir (1800-1870)
• 1840-1845: George Spalding (1809-1859
• 1845-1865: William Edmonstoune Aytoun (1813-1865)

Professors of Rhetoric and English Literature

• 1865-1895: David Mather Masson (1822-1907)
• 1895-1915: George Edward Bateman Saintsbury (1845-1933)
• 1915-1935: Sir Herbert John Clifford Grierson (1866-1960)
• 1935-1945: John Dover Wilson (1881–1969)
• 1945-1959: William Lindsay Renwick (1889-1970)
• 1959-1965: John Everett Butt (1906-1965)
• 1966-1971: Harold Jenkins (1909-2000)
• 1972-1984: Alastair David Shaw Fowler (1930- )
• 1991-1995: Ian Donaldson (1935- )
• 2000-2004: John Frow (1948- )
• 2007-2010: Laura Marcus (1956- )
• 2015- : Greg Walker

Sources

• Alexander Bower, The History of the University of Edinburgh. 3 vols. Edinburgh, 1817-1830.
• Sir Alexander Grant, The Story of the University of Edinburgh during its First Three Hundred Years, 2 vols (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1884)