Arnold Kettle

Arnold Charles Kettle (17 March 1916 – 24 December 1986)[1] was a British Marxist literary critic, most noted for his authorship of the two-volume work An Introduction to the English Novel (1951).

Kettle was born in Ealing, London, and was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood and Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he was a Cambridge Apostle.[1][2] Influenced by F. R. Leavis in his academic writings, he was a man of the left politically and joined the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1936, remaining a member for the rest of his life. He was the Open University’s first professor of literature and worked there until his retirement in 1981.[1][3][4]

His son is the journalist Martin Kettle.[5]

  1. ^ a b c Turner, John R. (2004). 'Kettle, Arnold Charles (1916–1986)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 23 September 2004 (online edition). Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  2. ^ Deacon, Richard, The Cambridge Apostles: a history of Cambridge University's élite intellectual secret society (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1986), p. 147. ISBN 0374118205
  3. ^ Kanwar, A. S., & Kettle, A. (1987). 'An Interview with Arnold Kettle.' Social Scientist, pp. 54-61.
  4. ^ Hobsbawm, Eric (1987). 'Master of Arts [Obituary of Arnold Kettle]', Marxism Today, February, p. 29
  5. ^ Kettle, Martin (2023-09-29). "Look back at Giorgio Napolitano: learn the limits of dogma and how good leaders can change lives". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-10-18.