John Gross, British literary critic died he was , 75.

John Gross FRSL  was an eminent English literary critic, author, and anthologist died he was , 75..^[4] The Spectator magazine called Gross “the best-read man in Britain”^[5], as did The Guardian^[6]. He was the editor of The Times Literary Supplement from 1974 to 1981, senior book editor and book critic on the staff of The New York Times from 1983 to 1989,^[7] and theatre critic for The Sunday Telegraph from 1989 to 2005. He also worked as assistant editor on Encounter and as literary editor of both The New Statesman and Spectator magazines.

(12 March 1935 – 10 January 2011 )

Upbringing and Academia
Born and raised in London’s East End,^[8] to Abraham Gross, a Polish Jewish immigrant, and Muriel Gross, also of East European Jewish origin. Gross was educated at school in London and the Perse School in Cambridge. At 17 he gained admission to Wadham College, Oxford^[9] and later undertook post graduate study at Princeton on a fellowship. He subsequently taught at Queen Mary, University of London and King's College, Cambridge (where he was a fellow) 1962-65^[9]), and in later life also taught courses at Columbia and Princeton universities in the United States.

Books

His works as author include The Rise and Fall of the Man of Letters (1969; revised 1991, winner of the Duff Cooper Prize), James Joyce (1970), Shylock: Four Hundred Years in the Life of a Legend (1993), and his childhood memoir A Double Thread (2001). His works as an editor and anthologist include After Shakespeare: Writing inspired by the world’s greatest author (2002), The Oxford Book of Aphorisms (1983), The Oxford Book of Comic Verse (1996), The New Oxford Book of English Prose (1998), The Oxford Book of Essays (2002), The New Oxford Book of Literary Anecdotes (2006), The Modern Movement, Dickens and the Twentieth Century (reissued 2008), and The Oxford Book of Parodies (2010).
Several of his books have won prizes. He also won praise from fellow writers.^[10][11]
“The publication of John Gross’s The Rise and Fall of the Man of Letters, when I was a bookish teenager, undoubtedly determined for me the direction I wanted my life to take... It became my Bible,” wrote A.N. Wilson in The Spectator magazine in 2006. ^[12]
Actor John Gielgud wrote “I read John Gross’s fascinating Shylock book straight through twice and enjoyed it more than I can say.”
John Updike called The New Oxford Book of English Prose “a marvelous gem… I wonder if there has ever been an anthology quite like it – with so vast a field – the virtually infinite expanse of English-language prose – for the anthologist to roam… I have been rapturously rolling around in John Gross’s amazing book for days.”
Harold Pinter, who grew up in the same working class East End London neighbourhood as John Gross, wrote of Gross’s childhood memoir, A Double Thread, “It is a most rich, immensely readable and very moving book. I recognized so much.” ^[13]

Journalism

He wrote regularly for The New York Review of Books,^[14] The Times Literary Supplement, The Wall Street Journal, The New Criterion,^[15] Commentary,^[16] The Spectator and Standpoint.^[17] In the past, he was a regular contributor on literary and cultural topics to The Observer, The New Statesman and The New York Times.

Directorships and Public Service

John Gross served as a trustee or director for several institutions and sat on a number of boards.
He was a trustee of London’s National Portrait Gallery from 1977 to 1984. He served two terms on the English Heritage advisory committee on blue plaques commemorating the homes of famous people and was on the Arts and Media Committee advising the British government on the award of public honors such as knighthoods.^[18] He has served as chairman of the judges of the Booker Prize.^[19][20] He was a member of The Literary Society.
He was a non-executive independent director of Times Newspaper holdings, the publishers of The Times and The Sunday Times from 1982.^[21]

Private life

John Gross was married to Miriam Gross, also a prominent literary editor, from 1965 to 1988. The couple had two children, Tom Gross and Susanna Gross. Gross lived in London.

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