Walter Fraser Oakeshott
Sir Walter Fraser Oakeshott | |
|---|---|
| Born | 11 November 1903 Transvaal Colony |
| Died | 13 October 1987 (aged 83) Balliol College, Oxford |
| Genre | Classics |
| Subject | Criticism |
| Notable works |
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| Spouse | Noël Rose Moon (1928–1976) [her death] |
| Children | Twin sons and two daughters |
Sir Walter Fraser Oakeshott
Biography
Oakeshott was born on 11 November 1903 in
After graduation, Oakeshott taught at various schools. His first post was at Tooting Bec School, London, followed by the
From 1936 to 1937, he took a leave of absence from teaching to serve on an inquiry into unemployment sponsored by the Pilgrim Trust, the findings of which were written up as Men without Work by William Temple (1938).[2]
Following the enquiry, Oakeshott returned to teaching, becoming
Oakeshott was elected as a member of the
The Winchester Manuscript of Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur
All editions of the Morte prior to 1934 were based on the edition printed by Caxton. In June of that year, when the library of
Eugène Vinaver, an already-established Malory scholar, arrived in Winchester on 27 June asking to see the manuscript. Though he was encouraged to produce an edition himself, Oakeshott acknowledged Vinaver's editorial superiority and eventually ceded the project to him.[11] But on the basis of his initial study of the manuscript, Oakeshott concluded as early as 1935 that the copy from which Caxton printed his edition "was already subdivided into books and sections."[12] Based on a more exhaustive study of the manuscript alongside Caxton's edition, Vinaver reached similar conclusions, and in his 1947 edition – polemically entitled The Works of Sir Thomas Malory – Vinaver argued strongly that Malory had in fact not written a single book, but produced a series of Arthurian tales which were internally consistent and independent works. The unity of the work has been a subject of some controversy among scholars since.
Oakeshott published an account of his remarkable discovery, "The Finding of the Manuscript," in 1963, chronicling the initial event and his realisation that "this indeed was Malory," with "startling evidence of revision" in the Caxton edition. In his account he mentions the visit of T. E. Lawrence ('Lawrence of Arabia') to see the manuscript.[11]
Books by and about Oakeshott
- Commerce and Society: a Short History of Trade and its Effects on Civilization. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1936.
- Founded Upon the Seas: A Narrative of Some English Maritime and Overseas Enterprises During the Period 1550–1616, by Walter Fraser Oakeshott. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1942. Reissued by Ayer Company Publishers, 1973. ISBN 978-0-8369-7233-7.
- The Sword of the Spirit: A Meditative and Devotional Anthology. London: Faber & Faber, 1950.
- The Sequence of English Medieval Art. London: Faber & Faber, 1950.
- Renaissance Maps of the World and their Presuppositions. Manchester: John Rylands Library, 1962.
- The Mosaics of Rome, From the Third to the Fourteenth Centuries. London: Thames & Hudson, 1967.
- ISBN 0-8212-0497-1
- Two Winchester Bibles. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981.
- John C. Dancy: Walter Oakeshott: A Diversity of Gifts. Norwich: Michael Russell, 1995.
References
- ^ Inventory of the Walter Fraser Oakeshott Papers, 1926–1986 (bulk 1949–1986), Online Archive of California, USA.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Keen, M. H. "Oakeshott, Sir Walter Fraser". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
- ^ "Sir Walter Oakeshott". Notable Old Tonbridgians. Tonbridge School. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
- ^ Oakeshott, Walter Fraser (1903–1987), Harpers Magazine.
- ^ "Jean Cooke". The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group Limited. 22 August 2008. Retrieved 5 January 2014.
- ^ "Your Paintings: Jean Cooke paintings slideshow". Art UK. Retrieved 6 January 2014.
- ^ Membership information, Roxburghe Club, UK.
- ^ "Supplement". The London Gazette. 13 June 1980. p. 2. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
- ^ "Honorary Graduates of the University". University of East Anglia. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
*Sir Walter Oakeshott, FBA, FSA (1984)
- ^ W. F. Oakeshott. "The Text of Malory". Retrieved 11 January 2009.
- ^ a b Walter F. Oakeshott, "The Finding of the Manuscript," Essays on Malory, ed. J. A. W. Bennett (Oxford: Clarendon, 1963), 1–6.
- ^ Walter F. Oakeshott, "Caxton and Malory's Morte Darthur," Gutenberg-Jahrbuch (1935), 112–116.
Further reading
About the Winchester manuscript
- University of Georgia: English Dept: Jonathan Evans: Walter F. Oakeshott and the Winchester Manuscript. (Contains links to the first public announcements concerning the Winchester manuscript from The Daily Telegraph, The Times, and The Times Literary Supplement.)
- UBC Department of English: Siân Echard: Caxton and Winchester
- Department of English, Goucher College: Arnie Sanders: The Malory Manuscript
External links
- Inventory of the Walter Fraser Oakeshott Papers, 1926–1986 (bulk 1949–1986), Getty Research Institute for the History of Art and the Humanities, Special Collections and Visual Resources.
- Sir Walter Fraser Oakeshott, photograph by National Portrait Gallery.
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