CAMBRIDGE CHAIR

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30338, 14 January 1964, Page 12

CAMBRIDGE CHAIR

Noted N.Z. Scholar "The Press" Special Service AUCKLAND, Jan. 13. A noted Auckland scholar. Dr. J. A. W. Bennett, who has been at Oxford University for more than 30 years, has been appointed to succeed the late Dr. C. S. Lewis as Professor of Mediaeval and Renaissance English at Cambridge University. Dr. Lewis, the eminent Christian apologist and author of the best-selling “Screwtape Letters,” died last year. Dr. Bennett is a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, and University Lecturer in English literature. He is an old boy of Mount Albert Grammar School and a graduate of Auckland University. He entered Merton College, Oxford, in 1933 as the holder of a post-graduate scholarship of the University of New Zealand. After graduating master of arts and doctor of philosophy, he was elected a fellow of Queen’s College and later of Magdalen College and examiner to the University of Edinburgh. In his new appointment he will be a fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge. Recognised as one of the leading Middle English scholars in England, Dr. Bennett has edited numerous books, including works on Chaucer and early Middle English verse and prose. He is editor of a magazine, “Medium Aevum,” published for the Society for the Study of Mediaeval Languages and Literature, and is general editor of the new Clarendon mediaeval and Tudor series of books being published by the Oxford University Press.