Kermode, Sir Frank

Kermode, Sir Frank (kär`mədē), 1919–, English critic, b. Isle of Man. Educated at Liverpool and a lieutenant in the Royal Navy during World War II, Kermode is one of the most distinguished critics of our time. He has taught at numerous universities, including Harvard, Cambridge, and Columbia, and is author or editor of some forty volumes. Best known are his studies of Shakespeare (1963–65) and D. H. Lawrence (1973), his editorship of The Oxford Anthology of English Literature (2 vol. 1973), and his provocative studies The Sense of an Ending (1967), The Genesis of Secrecy (1979), and The Art of Telling (1983). Kermode's memoir, Not Entitled, was published in 1995 and his selection of essays, Pieces of My Mind, appeared in 2003. He was knighted in 1991.