An Irishman's Diary on Enid Starkie

I have just written an Irishman's Diary in the Irish Times newspaper on the academic and literary critic, Enid Starkie (1897-1970). Starkie was born in Dublin and specialised in French literature. She taught in Oxford University for over thirty years. Read it here. 

Portrait of Enid Starkie in pastles by Peter Wardle (1966). Image source.

Enid Starkie sounds like she would have been a very good dinner guest, entertaining and full of knowledge about literature. 'Eccentric' is just one word that has been used to describe her. In a letter to her biographer, Joanna Richardson, Starkie said "unhurt people are not much use in the world". 

 

Photograph of Enid Starkie by Norman Parkinson (1951). Image source.

When she died in 1970, she left a legacy to Hollins University in Roanoak, Virginia. It was here that she spent a year as a visiting professor in the English and French departments (1958-1959). She returned there in 1967 and received the Hollins medal. 

This private liberal arts college for women, which was founded in 1842, received 5,000 volumes of French and English literature from Starkie's collection. They also received her house in Oxford, as well as some other benefactions. To acknowledge her generous bequest, Hollins named a building in her honour in 1972. Read more about 'Starkie House' here.