Editing Christopher Ricks (section)

==Life==
He was born in [[Beckenham]], the younger son of James Bruce Ricks, who worked for the family overcoat manufacturing firm, and Gabrielle (née Roszak), daughter of a furrier of French origin.<ref>''The International Who's Who 1996-97''. Europa Publications, 1996; p. 1298</ref><ref>''Contemporary Literary Critics'', Elmer Borklund, Palgrave Macmillan, 1977, p. 445</ref><ref name="auto1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/jan/29/poetry.oxforduniversity|title=Profile: Christopher Ricks|date=29 January 2005|website=The Guardian}}</ref> Ricks was educated at [[King Alfred's Academy|King Alfred's School, Wantage]]<ref name="auto">Contemporary Literary Critics, Elmer Borklund, Palgrave Macmillan, 1977, p. 445</ref> (a near-contemporary of the jockey [[Lester Piggott]]), then – as the first of his family to attend university<ref name="auto1"/> – studied at [[Balliol College, Oxford]], where he graduated with a [[British undergraduate degree classification|first]] in his [[Bachelor of Arts|B.A.]] in English in 1956, a [[Bachelor of Letters|B.Litt.]] in 1958, and [[Master of Arts (Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin)|M.A.]] in 1960.<ref name="auto"/> He served in the [[Green Howards]] in the [[British Army]] in 1953/4 in [[Egypt]]. He was a Fellow and Tutor in English Literature at [[Worcester College, Oxford]], moving in 1968, after a [[sabbatical|sabbatical year]] at [[Stanford University]], to become Professor of English at the [[University of Bristol]].

During his time at Bristol he worked on ''[[John Keats|Keats]] and Embarrassment'' (1974), in which he made revelatory connections between the letters and the poetry. It was also at Bristol that he first published his still-definitive edition of [[Alfred, Lord Tennyson|Tennyson]]'s poetry. In 1975, Ricks moved to the [[University of Cambridge]], where in 1982 he became [[King Edward VII Professor of English Literature]] in succession to [[Frank Kermode]], before leaving for [[Boston University]] in 1986. In June 2011 it was announced he would join the professoriate of [[New College of the Humanities]], a private college in [[London]].<ref>[http://www.nchum.org/faculty/professor-sir-christopher-ricks "The professoriate"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130511155511/http://www.nchum.org/faculty/professor-sir-christopher-ricks |date=11 May 2013 }}, New College of the Humanities, accessed 8 June 2011.</ref>

He was [[Knight Bachelor|knighted]] in the 2009 [[Birthday Honours]].<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=59090 |date=13 June 2009 |page=1 |supp=y}}</ref>