Fonds 1970 - A. S. P. Woodhouse fonds

Arthur Sutherland Piggott Woodhouse was born on September 27, 1895 in Port Hope Ontario. He received his B.A. from the University of Toronto in 1919 and his A.M. from Harvard in 1923. That same year, he joined the staff of the University of Manitoba. In 1929, he moved to the English Department of University College, University of Toronto, becoming Head in 1945 and Head of English Graduate Studies in 1948. His honorary degrees included an L.H.D. from the University of Chicago in 1960 and an LL.D. from McMaster University in May 1961. Woodhouse retired from his administrative duties in June 1964 but continued as a Special Lecturer until his death the following October.

In 1942, Woodhouse was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. He contributed many articles to the University of Toronto Quarterly and served as editor from 1933 to 1945. Woodhouse was a co-founder of the Humanities Research Council of Canada and also served on the executives of the Modern Language Association and the International Association of Professors of English. In addition to his work at University College, Woodhouse was appointed to the Faculty of Harvard Summer School for the 1949 session.

Woodhouse specialized in the works and philosophy of John Milton, although he also published articles and gave lectures on the writings of Edmund Spenser, Erasmus, Dickens, Homer, Virgil, Samuel Butler, Shelley, Wordsworth, Keats and Chaucer. He was particularly interested in the nature of Christian liberty and the relationship between religion and the humanities.

Woodhouse's works on Milton include Puritanism and Liberty, published in 1938; "Milton the Poet", the Sedgewick Memorial lecture given at the University of British Columbia in 1955; and the posthumously published, The Heavenly Muse: A Preface to Milton.

A life-long bachelor, Woodhouse maintained a close relationship with his mother, with whom he lived; she died in February 1962. Woodhouse died on October 31, 1964, following a short bout with influenza.