Sir Walter Alexander Raleigh was an influential English scholar, literary critic, and poet active during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Born in London, he was educated at University College London and King's College, Cambridge. Raleigh began his academic career teaching in India at the Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental College in Aligarh before returning to the United Kingdom, where he held prestigious professorships at the University of Liverpool, the University of Glasgow, and ultimately the University of Oxford, where he became the first holder of the Chair of English Literature in 1904.
As a critic, Raleigh was highly regarded for his accessible, stylish, and deeply appreciative approach to English literature. His notable publications include critical studies such as The English Novel (1894), Style (1897), and his widely read monograph Shakespeare (1907). His writing was characterized by a focus on the personality and spirit of the authors he studied, rather than dry philological analysis, making him a popular figure among students and general readers alike.
During the First World War, Raleigh's focus shifted toward historical and patriotic writing. He was commissioned to write the official history of the British air services during the conflict, published as The War in the Air (1922). Tragically, while traveling to the Middle East to gather material for this history, he contracted typhoid and died shortly after his return to England in 1922.
