Norman Davis was born in 1913 at Dunedin, New Zealand. He received his education at Otago Boys' High School and the University of Otago, where he was taught by Professor Herbert Ramsay. He was awarded a Rhodes scholarship to Merton College, Oxford, in 1934 and studied comparative philology. From 1937 to 1938, he lectured in English at the University of Kaunas in Lithuania, and then at the University of Sofia, Bulgaria, 1938–39.
He remained in Bulgaria in the early part the Second World War, as a clandestine member of the Special Operations Executive. He was interned in Italy for a time, then resumed clandestine work from Turkey.
After the war he taught at the universities of London, Glasgow and Oxford. He succeeded J.R.R. Tolkien as the MertoNorman Davis was born in 1913 at Dunedin, New Zealand. He received his education at Otago Boys' High School and the University of Otago, where he was taught by Professor Herbert Ramsay. He was awarded a Rhodes scholarship to Merton College, Oxford, in 1934 and studied comparative philology. From 1937 to 1938, he lectured in English at the University of Kaunas in Lithuania, and then at the University of Sofia, Bulgaria, 1938–39.
He remained in Bulgaria in the early part the Second World War, as a clandestine member of the Special Operations Executive. He was interned in Italy for a time, then resumed clandestine work from Turkey.
After the war he taught at the universities of London, Glasgow and Oxford. He succeeded J.R.R. Tolkien as the Merton Professor of English Language and Literature at Oxford.
His most significant work was an edition of the medieval letters of the Paston family in three volumes published in 1971. He also edited a popular selection of the letters translated into modern English....more
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