Robert Fraser (writer)
Encyclopedia
Professor Robert Fraser FRSL, is a British author and biographer.
and co-founder of the Buxton Festival
. At eight he won a choral scholarship to Winchester Cathedral
where he sang the daily services whilst studying at the Pilgrims School in the Close. Among his fellow choristers were the future newscaster Jon Snow
and international tenor Julian Pike. After attending Kingston Grammar School
he went on to the University of Sussex
to read English with David Daiches
and Anthony Nuttall
. He later wrote a doctorate on tradition in English poetry at Royal Holloway, University of London
while simultaneously studying Harmony, Counterpoint and Composition at Morley College
with Melanie Daiken and James Iliff.
in Ghana
where he lectured from 1970 to 1974 before moving to the University of Leeds
to teach under Geoffrey Hill
. He subsequently held posts in the University of London
and at Trinity College, Cambridge
where he was Director of Studies in English until 1993, tutoring among others the novelist Belinda Starling and the actor Alexander Armstrong
. He is currently Professor of English at the Open University
and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
.
’s opera Il pittor parigino performed at Buxton in 1989. He has also published articles on the cultural and political contexts of the music of Purcell
and Handel
. He is the author of several biographical works for the theatre, including plays on the lives of the composer Carlo Gesualdo
and of Byron. God’s Good Englishman, his dramatic portrait of Samuel Johnson
, opened at the Oxford Playhouse in 1984 and toured Britain with the actor Timothy West
in its title role.
Academically Fraser is a specialist in the writing of his near namesake, the classicist and cultural anthropologist James George Frazer, on whom he has published several books, and the genesis of whose best known work on magic, religion and myth he charted in The Making of The Golden Bough: The Origins and Growth of An Argument. A study in intellectual gestation, it was later integrated into the full “archive” edition of Frazer’s magnum opus
as a special introductory volume. In 1994 he edited for the Oxford World’s Classics a “new abridgement” of Frazer’s classic that brought some of its most provocative ideas back into general circulation, including theories on Christianity and sacred prostitution. At the same time, he is a respected critic of the work of Marcel Proust
, on whom he has published a much-cited study, and spoken on BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time.
In the wider literary world Fraser is principally associated with the life and work of certain twentieth-century British poets. In the early 1980s he conducted a dispute with Laura Riding
, former consort of Robert Graves
, who took issue with his review of her Collected Poems. In 1987 he edited the Collected Poems, and in 1995 the Selected Poems, of T. S. Eliot
’s protégé George Barker
. His life of Barker, The Chameleon Poet, aroused opposition among some members of the poet’s own family. But on its appearance in late 2001 it was warmly reviewed by the poets laureate Carol Ann Duffy
and Andrew Motion
, and by the writers Anthony Thwaite
, Vernon Scannell
, Humphrey Carpenter
and Frederic Raphael
; it was chosen by the novelist D. J. Taylor
as Spectator Book of the Year for 2002. Fraser is currently writing for the Oxford University Press a life of Barker’s life-long friend David Gascoyne
(1916–2001): poet, proponent of English Surrealism, Christian Existentialist and mystic.
Fraser was one of the guiding spirits behind Heinemann Educational Book’s celebrated African Writers Series
, and is a founding editor of the 25-year-old journal Wasafiri. He has published a “critical history” of West African poetry, along with monographs on Ben Okri
- a personal friend - and the Ghanaian novelist Ayi Kwei Armah
. During 2004-7 he travelled in India and Africa researching a comparative account of publishing in those regions which appeared in 2008 as Book History Through Postcolonial Eyes: Re-Writing the Script. Over the same period he co-edited with his friend Dr Mary Hammond of Southampton University a two-volume survey of international publishing entitled Books Without Borders. In October 2005, in connection with this work, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society
He has been described as a writer “who tries to keep one foot planted in, and the other well outside, academe”. Yale
’s Harold Bloom
has noted his powers of comparative analysis, and Harvard’s Biodun Jeyfo has commended the “superb work” of “this meticulous scholar-critic”. The classicist Roger Just has also drawn attention to his “care, precision, good sense and…admirable lightness of touch.”. But his writing has also given rise to vocal dissent, adopting as he does a line that seems now radical, now trenchantly traditionalist. His decision, in the words of John McLeod, “not to work with the niceties and orthodoxies of postcolonial theory" has on occasions given rise to sharply worded rejoinders. He has little time for critical fashion and in 1999 coined the mocking term “Theocolonialism” to describe the subordination of independent judgement to passing fad, and the purported tendency among some academics in the field of literary studies to leap aboard noisy bandwagons.
Early life
Fraser was born on 10 May 1947 in Surbiton, Surrey, the second son of Harry MacKenzie Fraser, a London solicitor, and Ada Alice Gittins of Pontypool in the county of Monmouthshire. His brother is Malcolm Fraser, Emeritus Professor of Opera at the University of CincinnatiUniversity of Cincinnati
The University of Cincinnati is a comprehensive public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio, and a part of the University System of Ohio....
and co-founder of the Buxton Festival
Buxton Festival
The Buxton Festival is an annual summer festival of opera, music, and a literary series, held in Buxton, Derbyshire in England since it began in July 1979.-History:...
. At eight he won a choral scholarship to Winchester Cathedral
Winchester Cathedral
Winchester Cathedral at Winchester in Hampshire is one of the largest cathedrals in England, with the longest nave and overall length of any Gothic cathedral in Europe...
where he sang the daily services whilst studying at the Pilgrims School in the Close. Among his fellow choristers were the future newscaster Jon Snow
Jon Snow
Jon Snow is an English journalist and presenter, currently employed by ITN. He is best known for presenting Channel 4 News.He was Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University from 2001 to 2008.-Early life:...
and international tenor Julian Pike. After attending Kingston Grammar School
Kingston Grammar School
Kingston Grammar School is an independent co-educational school in Kingston upon Thames, Greater London. The school was founded by Royal Charter in 1561 but can trace its roots back to at least the 13th century. It is a registered charity under English law....
he went on to the University of Sussex
University of Sussex
The University of Sussex is an English public research university situated next to the East Sussex village of Falmer, within the city of Brighton and Hove. The University received its Royal Charter in August 1961....
to read English with David Daiches
David Daiches
David Daiches was a Scottish literary historian and literary critic, scholar and writer. He wrote extensively on English literature, Scottish literature and Scottish culture.-Early life:...
and Anthony Nuttall
Anthony Nuttall
Anthony David Nuttall was an English literary critic and academic.Nuttall was educated at Hereford Cathedral School, Watford Grammar School for Boys and Merton College, Oxford,where he studied both Classical Moderations and English Literature...
. He later wrote a doctorate on tradition in English poetry at Royal Holloway, University of London
Royal Holloway, University of London
Royal Holloway, University of London is a constituent college of the University of London. The college has three faculties, 18 academic departments, and about 8,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students from over 130 different countries...
while simultaneously studying Harmony, Counterpoint and Composition at Morley College
Morley College
Morley College is an adult education college in London, England. It was founded in the 1880s and has a student population of 10,806 adult students...
with Melanie Daiken and James Iliff.
Teaching
Fraser began his teaching career at the University of Cape CoastUniversity of Cape Coast
The University of Cape Coast, Ghana, is one of the rare sea-front universities in the world. The university was established in 1962 out of a dire need for highly qualified and skilled manpower in education and was affiliated to the University of Ghana...
in Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
where he lectured from 1970 to 1974 before moving to the University of Leeds
University of Leeds
The University of Leeds is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England...
to teach under Geoffrey Hill
Geoffrey Hill
Geoffrey Hill is an English poet, professor emeritus of English literature and religion, and former co-director of the Editorial Institute, at Boston University. Hill has been considered to be among the most distinguished poets of his generation...
. He subsequently held posts in the University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
and at Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
where he was Director of Studies in English until 1993, tutoring among others the novelist Belinda Starling and the actor Alexander Armstrong
Alexander Armstrong (comedian)
Alexander Henry Fenwick Armstrong is a British comedian, actor and television presenter.-Early life and career:Armstrong was born in Rothbury, Northumberland, the youngest of three children, to Henry Angus Armstrong and his wife Emma Virginia Peronnet Thompson-McCausland, daughter of Lucius...
. He is currently Professor of English at the Open University
Open University
The Open University is a distance learning and research university founded by Royal Charter in the United Kingdom...
and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
Royal Society of Literature
The Royal Society of Literature is the "senior literary organisation in Britain". It was founded in 1820 by George IV, in order to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". The Society's first president was Thomas Burgess, who later became the Bishop of Salisbury...
.
Writing
Fraser's choral background can be detected in his work for the stage, such as the performing translation of Domenico CimarosaDomenico Cimarosa
Domenico Cimarosa was an Italian opera composer of the Neapolitan school...
’s opera Il pittor parigino performed at Buxton in 1989. He has also published articles on the cultural and political contexts of the music of Purcell
Purcell
Henry Purcell was an English composer.Purcell may also refer to:*Purcell, Indiana, an unincorporated community in Johnson Township, Knox County, Indiana*Purcell, Missouri, a city in Jasper County, Missouri, United States...
and Handel
HANDEL
HANDEL was the code-name for the UK's National Attack Warning System in the Cold War. It consisted of a small console consisting of two microphones, lights and gauges. The reason behind this was to provide a back-up if anything failed....
. He is the author of several biographical works for the theatre, including plays on the lives of the composer Carlo Gesualdo
Carlo Gesualdo
Carlo Gesualdo, known as Gesualdo di Venosa or Gesualdo da Venosa , Prince of Venosa and Count of Conza, was an Italian nobleman, lutenist, composer, and murderer....
and of Byron. God’s Good Englishman, his dramatic portrait of Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer...
, opened at the Oxford Playhouse in 1984 and toured Britain with the actor Timothy West
Timothy West
Timothy Lancaster West, CBE is an English film, stage and television actor.-Career:West's craggy looks ensured a career as a character actor rather than a leading man. He began his career as an Assistant Stage Manager at the Wimbledon Theatre in 1956, and followed this with several seasons of...
in its title role.
Academically Fraser is a specialist in the writing of his near namesake, the classicist and cultural anthropologist James George Frazer, on whom he has published several books, and the genesis of whose best known work on magic, religion and myth he charted in The Making of The Golden Bough: The Origins and Growth of An Argument. A study in intellectual gestation, it was later integrated into the full “archive” edition of Frazer’s magnum opus
Magnum opus
Magnum opus , from the Latin meaning "great work", refers to the largest, and perhaps the best, greatest, most popular, or most renowned achievement of a writer, artist, or composer.-Related terms:Sometimes the term magnum opus is used to refer to simply "a great work" rather than "the...
as a special introductory volume. In 1994 he edited for the Oxford World’s Classics a “new abridgement” of Frazer’s classic that brought some of its most provocative ideas back into general circulation, including theories on Christianity and sacred prostitution. At the same time, he is a respected critic of the work of Marcel Proust
Marcel Proust
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust was a French novelist, critic, and essayist best known for his monumental À la recherche du temps perdu...
, on whom he has published a much-cited study, and spoken on BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time.
In the wider literary world Fraser is principally associated with the life and work of certain twentieth-century British poets. In the early 1980s he conducted a dispute with Laura Riding
Laura Riding
Laura Jackson was an American poet, critic, novelist, essayist and short story writer.- Early life :...
, former consort of Robert Graves
Robert Graves
Robert von Ranke Graves 24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985 was an English poet, translator and novelist. During his long life he produced more than 140 works...
, who took issue with his review of her Collected Poems. In 1987 he edited the Collected Poems, and in 1995 the Selected Poems, of T. S. Eliot
T. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...
’s protégé George Barker
George Barker (poet)
George Granville Barker was an English poet and author.-Life and work:Barker was born in Loughton, near Epping Forest in Essex, England, elder brother of Kit Barker [painter] George Barker was raised by his Irish mother and English father in Battersea, London. He was educated at an L.C.C. school...
. His life of Barker, The Chameleon Poet, aroused opposition among some members of the poet’s own family. But on its appearance in late 2001 it was warmly reviewed by the poets laureate Carol Ann Duffy
Carol Ann Duffy
Carol Ann Duffy, CBE, FRSL is a Scottish poet and playwright. She is Professor of Contemporary Poetry at the Manchester Metropolitan University, and was appointed Britain's poet laureate in May 2009...
and Andrew Motion
Andrew Motion
Sir Andrew Motion, FRSL is an English poet, novelist and biographer, who presided as Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1999 to 2009.- Life and career :...
, and by the writers Anthony Thwaite
Anthony Thwaite
Anthony Simon Thwaite, OBE, is an English poet and writer. He is married to the writer Ann Thwaite. He was awarded the OBE in 1992, for services to poetry. He was mainly brought up in Yorkshire and currently lives in Norfolk....
, Vernon Scannell
Vernon Scannell
Vernon Scannell was a British poet and author. He was at one time a professional boxer, and wrote novels about the sport.-Personal life:Vernon Scannell was born in 1922 in Spilsby, Lincolnshire...
, Humphrey Carpenter
Humphrey Carpenter
Humphrey William Bouverie Carpenter was an English biographer, writer, and radio broadcaster.-Biography:...
and Frederic Raphael
Frederic Raphael
Frederic Michael Raphael is an American-born, British-educated screenwriter, and also a prolific novelist and journalist.-Life and career:...
; it was chosen by the novelist D. J. Taylor
D. J. Taylor
David John Taylor is a British critic, novelist and biographer. After attending school in Norwich, he read Modern History at St John's College, Oxford, and has received the 2003 Whitbread Biography Award for his biography of George Orwell. His novel Derby Day was longlisted for the 2011 Man Booker...
as Spectator Book of the Year for 2002. Fraser is currently writing for the Oxford University Press a life of Barker’s life-long friend David Gascoyne
David Gascoyne
David Gascoyne was an English poet associated with the Surrealist movement.-Early life and Surrealism:...
(1916–2001): poet, proponent of English Surrealism, Christian Existentialist and mystic.
Fraser was one of the guiding spirits behind Heinemann Educational Book’s celebrated African Writers Series
African Writers Series
African Writers Series is a series of books by African writers which has been published by Heinemann since 1962. The series has been a vehicle for some of the most important African writers, ensuring an international voice to literary masters including Chinua Achebe, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Steve Biko,...
, and is a founding editor of the 25-year-old journal Wasafiri. He has published a “critical history” of West African poetry, along with monographs on Ben Okri
Ben Okri
Ben Okri OBE FRSL is a Nigerian poet and novelist. Okri has become the leading figure of his generation of Nigerian writers who have largely abandoned the social and historical themes of Chinua Achebe, and brought together modernist narrative strategies and Nigerian oral and literary...
- a personal friend - and the Ghanaian novelist Ayi Kwei Armah
Ayi Kwei Armah
-Early life and education:Born to Fante-speaking parents, and descending on his father's side from a royal family in the Ga nation, Armah was born in the port city of Sekondi-Takoradi in Ghana, Having attended Achimota School, he left Ghana in 1959 to attend Groton School in Groton, MA. After...
. During 2004-7 he travelled in India and Africa researching a comparative account of publishing in those regions which appeared in 2008 as Book History Through Postcolonial Eyes: Re-Writing the Script. Over the same period he co-edited with his friend Dr Mary Hammond of Southampton University a two-volume survey of international publishing entitled Books Without Borders. In October 2005, in connection with this work, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society
Royal Asiatic Society
The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland was established, according to its Royal Charter of 11 August 1824, to further "the investigation of subjects connected with and for the encouragement of science, literature and the arts in relation to Asia." From its incorporation the Society...
He has been described as a writer “who tries to keep one foot planted in, and the other well outside, academe”. Yale
YALE
RapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...
’s Harold Bloom
Harold Bloom
Harold Bloom is an American writer and literary critic, and is Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University. He is known for his defense of 19th-century Romantic poets, his unique and controversial theories of poetic influence, and his prodigious literary output, particularly for a literary...
has noted his powers of comparative analysis, and Harvard’s Biodun Jeyfo has commended the “superb work” of “this meticulous scholar-critic”. The classicist Roger Just has also drawn attention to his “care, precision, good sense and…admirable lightness of touch.”. But his writing has also given rise to vocal dissent, adopting as he does a line that seems now radical, now trenchantly traditionalist. His decision, in the words of John McLeod, “not to work with the niceties and orthodoxies of postcolonial theory" has on occasions given rise to sharply worded rejoinders. He has little time for critical fashion and in 1999 coined the mocking term “Theocolonialism” to describe the subordination of independent judgement to passing fad, and the purported tendency among some academics in the field of literary studies to leap aboard noisy bandwagons.