# John Churton Collins > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/John_Churton_Collins > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/John_Churton_Collins.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Churton_Collins > Source revision: 1305809771 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{one source|date=February 2012}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2021}} {{Use British English|date=May 2012}} {{infobox person | image = Portrait of John Churton Collins.jpg | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1848|3|26}} | birth_place = [Bourton-on-the-Water](/source/Bourton-on-the-Water), [Gloucestershire](/source/Gloucestershire), England | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1908|9|15|1848|3|26}} | death_place = [Lowestoft](/source/Lowestoft), [Suffolk](/source/Suffolk), England | alma_mater = [Balliol College](/source/Balliol_College%2C_Oxford) | occupation = | burial_place = | signature = }} '''John Churton Collins''' (26 March 1848 – 15 September 1908) was a British literary [critic](/source/critic). ==Biography== Churton Collins was born at [Bourton-on-the-Water](/source/Bourton-on-the-Water), [Gloucestershire](/source/Gloucestershire), [England](/source/England). From [King Edward's School](/source/King_Edward's_School%2C_Birmingham), [Birmingham](/source/Birmingham), he went to [Balliol College](/source/Balliol_College%2C_Oxford), [Oxford](/source/Oxford), where he graduated in 1872, and at once devoted himself to a literary career, as journalist, essayist and lecturer. His first book was a study of [Sir Joshua Reynolds](/source/Sir_Joshua_Reynolds) (1874), and later he edited various classical English writers, and published volumes on [Bolingbroke](/source/Henry_St_John%2C_Viscount_Bolingbroke) and [Voltaire](/source/Voltaire) in [England](/source/England) (1886),{{cite journal|author=Courtney, W. P.|title=Review of ''Bolingbroke, a Historical Study; and Voltaire in England'' by John Churton Collins|journal=The Academy|date=10 July 1886|volume=30|issue=740|page=19|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=chi.79227477;view=1up;seq=23}} ''The Study of English Literature'' (1891),{{cite journal|author=Ryland, F.|title=Review of ''The Study of English Literature'' by John Churton Collins|journal=The Academy|date=12 December 1891|volume=40|issue=1023|pages=529–530|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uva.x002608754;view=1up;seq=545}} a study of [Dean Swift](/source/Dean_Swift) (1893), ''Essays and Studies'' (1895),{{cite journal|author=Walker, Hugh|author-link=Hugh Walker (academic)|title=Review of ''Essays and Studies'' by John Churton Collins|journal=The Academy|date=23 November 1895|volume=48|issue=1229|pages=427–428|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015080186722;view=1up;seq=441}} ''Ephemera Critica'' (1901), ''Essays in Poetry and Criticism'' (1905), and [Rousseau](/source/Jean-Jacques_Rousseau) and Voltaire (1908), his original essays being sharply controversial in tone, but full of knowledge.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} In 1904 he became professor of English literature at [Birmingham University](/source/University_of_Birmingham).{{cite magazine|title=COLLINS, John Churton|magazine=Who's Who|year=1907|volume= 59|page=365|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yEcuAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA365}} For many years he was a prominent University Extension lecturer, and a constant contributor to the principal reviews. On 15 September 1908 he was found dead in a ditch near [Lowestoft](/source/Lowestoft), [Suffolk](/source/Suffolk), at which place he had been staying with a doctor for the benefit of his health. The circumstances necessitated the holding of an inquest, the verdict being that of accidental death.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} ==Criticism== [Lord Tennyson](/source/Lord_Tennyson), a target of Collins' pen,{{cite journal | last1 = Kearney | first1 = Anthony | year = 1992 | title = Making Tennyson a Classic: Churton Collins' 'Illustrations of Tennyson' in Context | journal = Victorian Poetry | volume = 30 | issue = 1| pages = 75–82 }} referred to him as "a louse in the locks of literature".{{cite news|last=Berlin|first=Isaiah|title=Edmund Wilson Among the 'Despicable English'|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/04/12/books/edmund-wilson-among-the-despicable-english.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm|access-date=24 June 2012|newspaper=The New York Times|date=12 April 1987}} ==Works== * [http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009560795 ''Bolingbroke: A Historical Study''] (1886). * ''Illustrations of Tennyson'' (1891). * [http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000200698 ''The Study of English Literature''] (1891). * [http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000664498 ''Essays and Studies''] (1895). * ''A Treasury of Minor British Poetry'' (1896). * ''The Early Poems of Alfred, Lord Tennyson'' (1900). * ''Ephemera Critica'' (1901). * [http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001022905 ''Jonathan Swift, a Biographical and Critical Study''] (1902). * ''Critical Essays and Literary Fragments'' (1903). * ''Studies in Shakespeare'' (1904). * ''Studies in Poetry and Criticism'' (1905). * 13 essays, most on 18th century poets, in [https://archive.org/stream/poetscountry00walkgoog#page/n11/mode/1up ''Poets' Country''], ed. Andrew Lang (1907). * [https://books.google.com/books/about/Voltaire_Montesquieu_and_Rousseau_in_Eng.html?id=wXkGAQAAIAAJ ''Voltaire, Montesquieu and Rousseau in England''] (1908).{{cite magazine|title=Review: ''Voltaire, Montesquieu and Rousseau in England'' by J. Churton Collins|magazine=[The Athenaeum](/source/Athenaeum_(British_magazine))|date=18 April 1908|number=4199|page=471|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XSI5AQAAIAAJ&pg=PA471|last1=Buckingham|first1=James Silk|last2=Sterling|first2=John|last3=Maurice|first3=Frederick Denison|last4=Stebbing|first4=Henry|last5=Dilke|first5=Charles Wentworth|last6=Hervey|first6=Thomas Kibble|last7=Dixon|first7=William Hepworth|last8=MacColl|first8=Norman|last9=Rendall|first9=Vernon Horace|last10=Murry|first10=John Middleton}} * ''Greek Influence on English Poetry'' (1910). * ''Life and Memoirs of John Churton Collins'' (1911). * ''The Posthumous Essays of John Churton Collins'' (1912). ==References== {{Reflist}} * {{EB1911|wstitle=Collins, John Churton|volume=6|page=692}} ==Further reading== * {{cite journal | last1 = Kearney | first1 = Anthony | year = 1981 | title = John Churton Collins and the Attempt to Link English and Classics | journal = British Journal of Educational Studies | volume = 29 | issue = 3| pages = 258–267 | doi=10.2307/3119935| jstor = 3119935 }} * Kearney, Anthony (1986). ''John Churton Collins: the Louse on the Locks of Literature.'' Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press. * Theobald, Robert M. (1904). [https://archive.org/stream/ethicsofcriticis00theo#page/n3/mode/2up ''The Ethics of Criticism, Illustrated by Mr. Churton Collins.''] London: Watts & Co. ==External links== {{Commons category|John Churton Collins}} {{wikisource|works=or}} * {{Gutenberg author |id=4668| name=John Churton Collins}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Churton Collins}} * {{Librivox author |id=9723}} * [https://thediaryjunction.blogspot.com/2008/09/i-thought-i-was-out-of-woods.html The Diary Junction Blog] {{Authority control}} {{EB1911 article with no significant updates}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Collins, John Churton}} Category:1848 births Category:1908 deaths Category:English literary critics Category:People from Bourton-on-the-Water Category:Academics of the University of Birmingham Category:Accidental deaths in England Category:People educated at The King's School, Chester Category:English male non-fiction writers --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [John Churton Collins](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Churton_Collins) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Churton_Collins?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.