Traversi, Derek A. 1912–2005

(Derek Antona Traversi)

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born November 7, 1912, in Caersws, Montgomeryshire, Wales; died August 25, 2005, in Richmond, Surrey, England. Educator and author. Traversi was a respected Shakespearean scholar who spent many years as a lecturer for the British Council. He earned an M.A. in 1934 and a B.Litt. in 1937, both from Oxford University. He then earned a B.A. in Italian from University College London in 1938. Traversi had spent some years growing up in Italy and was fond of its language and culture, and after finishing this last degree he joined the British Institute of Rome. At the time, fascist dictator Benito Mussolini was in power, and Traversi found himself in conflict with the authorities. He thus decided to return to England. Found unfit for active duty as World War II heated up, he continued his association with the British Institute and moved to Madrid to lecture. In Madrid he met the woman who would become his wife and also became friends with the director of the Madrid Institute. In 1944 Traversi was promoted to director of the Madrid Institute in Bilbao and then Barcelona. Over the next decades he continued to travel around the world as a lecturer and cultural director. He returned to Europe in 1959 as the cultural relations director in Madrid and, from 1966 to 1970, in Rome, Italy. The last part of his career was spent as a professor of English teaching at Swarthmore College from 1970 to 1983. Though he wrote on other authors and literary subjects, including T.S. Eliot, Chaucer, and Dante, Traversi was best known for his Shakespearean studies. Among his books are An Approach to Shakespeare (1938; 3rd edition, 1969), Shakespeare: The Roman Plays (1963), T.S. Eliot: The Longer Poems (1976), and Chaucer: The Earlier Poetry (1987).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Guardian (London, England), September 15, 2005, p. 37.

Independent (London, England), September 27, 2005, p. 34.

Times (London, England), September 16, 2005, p. 75.