Sir Frank Kermode has passed away at age 90. His illustrious resume included WWII Royal Navy officer, British knighthood, journal editor, university professor, and literary critic.
Alan Samson, the critic’s publisher at Weidenfeld & Nicolson told the Guardian: “He knew he had exceptional gifts, but there was a modest manner about him. He knew he was smarter than everyone else, but he was this pipe-smoking, beguiling man who listened to what you had to say. It’s the wreath of pipe smoke and the benign smile and wisdom which I’m really going to miss.”
Kermode authored more than 20 books and edited several more. Among the authors he studied were: William Shakespeare, Philip Roth, E. M. Forster, T.S. Eliot, and Sir Francis Bacon. He taught at Cambridge, Columbia, and Harvard. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1991.