John Carey

John Carey (5 April 1934 – 11 December 2025) was a British literary critic, and post-retirement emeritus Merton Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford. He was a scholar on John Milton and he also published a number of books on various literary figures. He became known for his anti-elitist views on high culture, as expounded in several books such as The Intellectuals and the Masses and What Good Are the Arts? Carey twice chaired the Booker Prize committee, in 1982 and 2003, and chaired the judging panel for the first Man Booker International Prize in 2005.

Early life Carey was born in Barnes, then in Surrey, on 5 April 1934, the youngest of four children born to Charles W. Carey and Winifred E. Carey, née Cook. He continued his study with a DPhil at Merton College, writing a thesis on Ovid.

Carey first became known as a scholar on John Milton. He translated Milton's De doctrina Christiana, and a Fellow of the British Academy in 1996.

Literary criticism Carey's scholarly work is generally agreed to be influential. Among these productions is his co-edition, with Alastair Fowler, of the Poems of John Milton (Longman, 1968; revised 1980; 2nd ed. 2006); John Donne: Life, Mind, and Art (Faber and Faber, 1981; revised 1990), a revolutionary study of Donne's work in the light of his life and family history; and The Violent Effigy: A Study of Dickens's Imagination (1973; 2nd ed. 1991).

He twice chaired the Booker Prize committee, in 1982 and 2004, and chaired the judging panel for the first Man Booker International Prize in 2005. From 1977 to 2023, he was chief book reviewer for the London Sunday Times. He also appeared in radio and TV programmes including Saturday Review and Newsnight Review.

Views Carey was known for his anti-elitist views on high culture, as expressed for example in his book What Good Are the Arts? (2005). Carey's 1992 book The Intellectuals and the Masses: Pride and Prejudice among the Literary Intelligentsia, 1880–1939 was a critique of Modernist writers (particularly T. S. Eliot, Virginia Woolf, W. B. Yeats, D. H. Lawrence and H. G. Wells) for what Carey argues were their elitist and misanthropic views of mass society; in their place he called for a reappraisal of Arnold Bennett, "the hero of this book", whose "writings represent a systematic dismemberment of the intellectuals' case against the masses". In his review of the book Geoff Dyer wrote that Carey picked out negative quotations from his subjects, while Stefan Collini responded that disdain for mass culture among some Modernist writers was already well known among literary historians.

Memoir In 2014, Carey published a memoir The Unexpected Professor.

Personal life and death Carey married Gillian Booth in 1960. They had two sons. He was, for decades, a beekeeper. He died in Oxford on 11 December 2025, at the age of 91.

Works

The Poems of John Milton (1968) editor with Alastair Fowler Andrew Marvell: A Critical Anthology (1969) editor The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg (1969) editor John Milton (1969) Complete Shorter Poems of John Milton (1971), revised 2nd edition (1997) editor The Violent Effigy. A Study of Dickens' Imagination (1973) published in America as Here Comes Dickens. The Imagination of a Novelist. Republished in Faber Finds (2008) John Milton, Christian Doctrine (1971) translator Thackeray: Prodigal Genius (1977) republished in Faber Finds (2008) English Renaissance Studies: Presented To Dame Helen Gardner In Honour Of Her Seventieth Birthday (1979) John Donne: Life, Mind and Art (1981) new revised edition (1990) republished in Faber Finds (2008) William Golding : The Man and His Books (1986) editor Faber Book of Reportage (1987) editor. Published in America as Eyewitness to History, Harvard University Press, (1987) Original Copy : Selected Reviews and Journalism 1969–1986 (1987) John Donne. The Major Works (1990) editor, Oxford Authors, reprinted with revisions (2000) World's Classics The Intellectuals and the Masses: Pride and Prejudice among the Literary Intelligentsia, 1880–1939 (1992) Short Stories and the Unbearable Bassington by Saki (1994) editor Faber Book of Science (1995) editor. Published in America as Eyewitness to Science: Scientists and Writers Illuminate Natural Phenomena from Fossils to Fractals, Harvard University Press, (1997) Selected Poetry of John Donne (1998) editor Faber Book of Utopias (2000) editor Pure Pleasure: a Guide to the Twentieth Century's Most Enjoyable Books (2000) George Orwell, Essays (2002) editor and introduction :xv-xxxi. Knopf Vanity Fair by William Thackeray (2002) editor What Good are the Arts? (2005) William Golding: The Man Who Wrote 'Lord of the Flies' (2009) The Unexpected Professor: An Oxford Life in Books (2014) The Essential 'Paradise Lost' (2017) A Little History of Poetry, Yale University Press (2020) 100 Poets: A Little Anthology, Yale University Press (2021) Sunday Best: 80 Great Books from a Lifetime of Reviews, Yale University Press (2022)