Life
1909-1991; b. Croydon;
took Open Scholarship in Classics to St John's College, Cambridge; studied under H. M. and Nora Chadwick; became fluent in 6 Celtic languages; worked with Ifor Williams in Wales, and Osborn Bergin in Dublin;
fellowship at St John's and university lectureship, 1934; appt.
Professor of Celtic at Harvard, 1939; appt. chair of Celtic Literature, Edinburgh University, 1949; editor of A Celtic Miscellany (1951), translations; and other works on Irish, Manx and Welsh literature; gave John Rhys lecture on Common Gaelic: the evolution of the Goedelic languages [Proc. of Brit. Acad., XXXVII] (British Academy 1953) and 1964 Rede lecture as The Oldest Irish Tradition: A Window on the Iron Age (1964); also issued
Historical Phonology of Breton (1967),The Gododdin (1969) and The Gaelic notes in the book of Deer (1972); served on
Royal Commission for the Ancient
and Historical Monuments of Scotland; member of
British Academy and non. member of the RIA; publised edn. of Aislinge Meic Con Clinne, a Middle Irish satirical extravaganza Middle Irish; awarded CBE and FPA; d. 22 Feb.; obit. 8 March 1991, The Times; survived by wife Janet and two children.
Works
Studies in Early Celtic Nature Poetry (Cambridge UP 1935), xii, 204pp. [infra]; Ed. Cath Maighe Léna [Mediaeval & Modern Irish Ser. 9] (Dublin: Stationery Office 1938; rep. 1990), xxxv, 187pp. 8o.; A Celtic Miscellany (London:
Routledge & Paul 1951; 1971), 359pp.; with others, Celt and Saxon: Studies in the Early British Border (Cambridge UP 1963), viii, 364pp., [4]pp. of pls.; The Oldest Irish Tradition: A Window on the Iron Age [Rede Lecture] (Cambridge UP 1964), 54pp.
Also, Testing the Wife's Affection [from Folk-Lore, 48] (1937), 2pp. [offprint]; ed. Peg Sayers, Scealta ón mBlascaod [...] do scríobh ó bhéal Pheig Sayers [Béalordeas, 8, 1] (Baile Átha Cliath: Cumann le Béalordeas Éireann 1939), 96pp.; Also, Further Note on Suibhne Geilt and Merlin (Dublin: UCD [n.d.]), [5]pp.
Studies in Early Celtic Nature Poetry (Cambridge UP 1935), xii, 204pp., Do. (Folcroft, Pa.: Folcroft Library Edns. 1974), xii, 204pp., and Do. [rep. edn.] (Philadelphia: Robert West 1977) [q.pp.]; another edn. (Felinfach: Llanerch 1995), xii, 204pp.
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Criticism
Kay Muhr, ‘Kenneth Hurlstone Jackson, 1909-1991’, in Nomina, 15 (1991-92), pp.127-29. See also
Seamus Heaney, in Preoccupations, 1980, p.183.
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)