Starkie, Enid (1897–1970)

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Starkie, Enid (1897–1970)

Irish literary critic. Born Enid Mary Starkie, Aug 18, 1897, in Killiney, Co. Dublin, Ireland; died April 21, 1970, in Oxford, England; dau. of W(illiam) J(oseph) M(yles) Starkie (classicist) and Mary Walsh Starkie; sister of Walter Starkie (writer); received undergraduate degree at Alexander College, Dublin; Sorbonne, doctorate in French literature, 1928; Somerville College, University of Oxford, Doctorate of Letters, 1939.

Taught modern languages at Oxford from 1929; played an important role in establishing the reputation of Rimbaud; works include Baudelaire (1933, 1957), Arthur Rimbaud in Abyssinia (1937), A Critical Edition of Baudelaire's "Les Fleurs du Mal" (1947), Petrus Borel (1954), From Gautier to Eliot: The Influence of France on English Literature, 1854–1954 (1954), and Flaubert: The Master (1971); elected to Irish Academy of Letters. Received Chevalier of French Legion of Honor (1948); made CBE (1967).

See also memoir, A Lady's Child (1941).