 Gerald Eades Bentley, Jr. was born in Chicago in 1930 to Gerald Eades Bentley and Esther Greenwood Felt. Jerry received a B.A. from Princeton, and his D.Phil. from Oxford University. Jerry first taught at the University of Chicago and moved in 1960 to University College at the University of Toronto, where he remained for the rest of his career; he retired as Professor Emeritus of English in 1996. He married Elizabeth (Beth) Budd in 1952 and had two daughters.
Jerry and Beth travelled the world researching William Blake and teaching. He taught at the Universite d’Alger (Algeria), the University of Poona (India), Fudan University (China), the University of Hyderabad (India) and at the Australian Defence Force Academy. He was also a visiting fellow at the National Library of Australia, the Rockefeller Study Center in Bellagio (Italy), Oxford University, and Durham University. He spent all his sabbaticals in Oxfordshire so he and Beth could work at the Bodleian Library.
He authored and edited over 30 books and numerous articles, primarily on William Blake. These include Blake Records, Stranger from Paradise: a Biography of William Blake, and Blake Books. His scholarly achievements were recognized through a number of honours and awards including three Fulbright Fellowships and his election to the Royal Society of Canada.
Jerry was widely liked and admired as a scholar, a globe-trotting academic, a raconteur extraordinaire and a generous friend and mentor.
Donations in his memory may be made to the Victoria University Library where Jerry's Blake Collection lives.
|