Obituary: Norman Francis Blake (1934–2012)

Abstract

‘‘Norman F. Blake, University of Sheffield’’. Students of English around the world will have come across title pages and article headers with this name and affiliation, for Blake’s academic output was extensive and varied. It included some thirty authored or edited volumes, not to mention around 200 articles and an even larger number of reviews; many of the latter in particular appeared in English Studies where Blake also served on the International Advisory Board. He held the Chair in English Language at Sheffield for a generation and several senior administrative posts there, including Head of Department, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and eventually Pro-Vice Chancellor. Prior to his arrival at Sheffield in 1973, he lectured in English at the University of Liverpool for just over a decade. After retiring, he first stayed on at Sheffield as Director of the Humanities Research Institute but later took a Research Professorship at Leicester’s De Montfort University.