GOLLANCZ, SIR ISRAEL

GOLLANCZ, SIR ISRAEL (1864–1930), English literary scholar. Gollancz, son of the Rev. Samuel Marcus Gollancz, minister of the Hambro Synagogue in London and a brother of Rabbi sir hermann gollancz , was lecturer in English at University College, London (1892–95), and then at Cambridge. In 1903 he was appointed professor of English at King's College, London. An outstanding Shakespearean scholar, Gollancz also made important contributions to the study of early English literature and philology. His works include an edition and translation of the 14th-century alliterative poem, Pearl (1891), an edition of Marlowe's Dr. Faustus (1897), The Sources of Hamlet (1926), and The Caedmon MS of Anglo-Saxon Biblical Poetry… (1927). He was also general editor of the Temple Classics and of the highly successful Temple Shakespeare. Gollancz did not confine his activities to the area of English literature. In 1902 he helped to found the British Academy, of which he remained secretary until his death. In this capacity he was instrumental in establishing the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem in 1920. He was knighted in 1919. He took an interest in Jewish affairs, especially in the training of rabbis. He also served on the council of Jews' College, London, for some years. -ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: ODNB online. (Harold Harel Fisch)