Gibson, James (Charles) 1919–2005
Gibson, James (Charles) 1919–2005
OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born July 8, 1919, in London, England; died April 16, 2005, in Dorchester, England. Educator and author. Gibson was a former lecturer at Christ Church College, was widely regarded as an expert on the life and writings of Thomas Hardy. After serving in the Royal Army Service Corps during World War II and seeing action in Europe and Egypt, he earned a B.A. in English from Queen's College, Cambridge, in 1949, and an M.A. in 1954. Gibson was on the faculty at Dulwich College from 1949 to 1962, after which he joined Christ Church. He remained there until his 1984 retirement as principal lecturer in English. An expert on Hardy, Gibson was a founding member of the Thomas Hardy Society and edited the Thomas Hardy Journal from 1985 to 1990. He also edited several collections of Hardy's poems, including Chosen Poems of Thomas Hardy (1975) and The Variorum Edition of the Complete Poems of Thomas Hardy (1979). In addition, he edited and wrote the introductions to several new editions of Hardy's novels. In his more recent Thomas Hardy: Interviews and Recollections (1999) he provided evidence that Hardy was not nearly the miserable and antisocial man that many previous biographers have portrayed.
OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:
PERIODICALS
Times (London, England), May 19, 2005, p. 68.
ONLINE
Thomas Hardy Society Web site, http://www.hardysociety.org/ (June 9, 2005).