Ronald Dyce Sadler Jack FRSE (3 April 1941, in Ayr – 14 December 2016, in Edinburgh) was a scholar of Scottish literature and medieval literature and professor at the University of Edinburgh.
Education Jack studied at Ayr Academy and then at Glasgow University (1959–1964) where he achieved First Class Honours in English Language and Literature. He completed his PhD at the University of Edinburgh (1964–1968) under Professor Jack MacQueen on the topic "The Scottish Sonnet and Renaissance Poetry".
Academic Career at the University of Edinburgh
Assistant Lecturer: 1965 Lecturer: 1968 Reader: 1978 Personal Chair, Scottish and Medieval Literature: 1987–2004 Professor Emeritus/Honorary Fellow: 2004 Honorary Research Fellow: 2007
Awards Source: University of Glasgow: D.Litt.,1990 Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 2000
Research His academic work focused on medieval and renaissance Scottish literature, Scottish literature in translation, Italian influences in Scottish literature and culture, Robert Burns, J. M. Barrie, Alexander Montgomerie, and other subjects.
Works
Robert Maclellan's Jamie the Saxt (Calder and Boyars, 1972), edited, with Ian Campbell The Italian Influence on Scottish Literature (Edinburgh University Press, 1972) Scottish Prose 1550–1700 (Calder and Boyars, 1972) A Choice of Scottish Verse 1560–1660 (Hodder and Stoughton, 1978) The Art of Robert Burns (1982), edited, with Andrew Noble Sir Thomas Urquhart, "The Jewel" (Scottish Academic Press, 1984), with R. J. Lyall Alexander Montgomerie (Scottish Writers Series: Scottish Academic Press, 1985) Scotland's Literary Debt to Italy (Edinburgh University Press/ Instituto Italiano di Cultura, 1986) Leopardi: A Scottis Quair (Edinburgh University Press, 1987), with M. L. McLaughlin and Christopher Whyte The History of Scottish Literature, Volume 1, Origins to 1660 (Aberdeen University Press, 1988), edited Patterns of Divine Comedy in Medieval Drama (Boydell and Brewer,1989) The Road to the Never Land: A Re-assessment of J.M. Barrie's Dramatic Art (Aberdeen University Press, March 1991) The Poetry of William Dunbar (Glasgow, 1996), as part of the Scotnotes series published by Association for Scottish Literary Studies J. M. Barrie: Myths and the Mythmaker (Rodopi, 2010)
Jack Medal In 2018, the International Association for the Study of Scottish Literatures launched the Jack Medal, named in Jack's honour. The medal is awarded every year for the best newly published academic article on a subject dealing with Scottish literature and related to reception and/or diaspora.
Jack Medal Awardees
2018: Nikki Hessell, Stephen Clothier 2019: Céline Sabiron 2020: Anna Fancett 2021: Bryony Coombs 2022: Nigel Leask, Peadar Ó Muircheartaigh
References