Vyacheslav Ivanov and C.M. Bowra: a ... - UCL Discovery

who initiated him into the art of translating English prose and verse into Greek. 16 As we
shall see below, Murray's impact was long-lasting and can be traced in Bowra's later
exchanges on the art of translation with Ivanov.
In 1922, immediately upon graduation Bowra was elected to a tutorial fellowship
in classics at Wadham College; this was followed by his appointment in October 1931
as University Lecturer in Greek history. 17 From now until his death in 1971, he devoted
his formidable energies to all aspects of his academic position at Oxford: to his research,
students, colleagues, College and University. His distinguished career was marked by a
series of professional triumphs. Although he was disappointed not to be elected to the
Regius Professorship of Greek when Gilbert Murray retired in 1936, consolation
followed swiftly when he was elected Warden of Wadham College in 1938 at the
remarkably early age of forty. He was such a popular Warden that his appointment was
extended after he reached seventy, the usual age of retirement. 18 From 1946 to 1951, he
occupied the prestigious Oxford Chair of Poetry; in 1951 he was knighted; from 1951 to
1954 he was Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University and from 1958 to 1962 President of
the British Academy. He was also a Delegate of the Clarendon Press (a position which
enabled him to facilitate the publication of Ivanov's late collection of verse Svet
Vechernii).
For all his remarkable administrative talents, Bowra did not allow his academic
interests to become eroded by these public appointments. He maintained an impressive
output of scholarly publications, amounting to nearly thirty books over some forty years.
His publications fall into two principal categories: studies, editions and translations of
classical literature, for which his education had groomed him, and critical investigations
16 Bowra, Memories, 109-10.
17 Bowra’s papers, WCA, contain his contract for this appointment, dated 30 October 1931.
18 Lloyd-Jones, ‘British Academy Memoir’, 35.
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