Alexander, William John

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(1855-1944)
English University College

Alexander was born in Hamilton, Ontario in 1855, and completed his secondary education at the Hamilton Collegiate Institute. From there he entered the University of Toronto, graduating in 1873. With a Dominion Gilchrist Scholarship, he was able to attend the University of London, where he completed a first class honours degree in English in 1877. Following that period of study, he taught at Prince of Wales College in Charlottetown, PEI for two years (1878-79), and then moved on to graduate work at Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD), completing his PhD in Greek and Philology in 1883. He followed this with a year of study at the University of Heidelberg, and then an appointment in 1884 as professor of language and literature at Dalhousie University (Halifax, NS). This led in turn to an apppointment in 1889 at the University of Toronto, to the newly established chair in English at University College. He remained in this position until his retirement in 1927, and died in 1944 on a visit to Halifax.


Alexander's publications combined textbooks aimed at the secondary schools, along with a range of scholarly publications in English. The former include:

  Shorter Poems (published by the T. Eaton Co., initially in 1924) 

  Short Stories and Essays (published by the Ryerson Press in 1928)

The latter included:

  An introduction to the poetry of Robert Browning. Boston: Ginn, 1889.


http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/display_rpo/edition/wja.html
http://www.library.utoronto.ca/fisher/collections/findaids/Alexander83.pdf

Harris, Robin S. English Studies at Toronto: A history. Toronto: University of Toronto Governing Council, 1988.

Murray, Heather. Working in English: history, institution, resources. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996