Kenneth Cyril Bruce Allott (29 August 1912 – 23 May 1973) was an Anglo-Irish poet and academic, and authority on Matthew Arnold.
Life
Allott was the elder son of Hubert Cyril Willoughby Allott and his wife Rose (née Finlay). Born in Glamorgan, where his father, a doctor, was serving as a locum, Allott was raised at Nenthead, Cumbria, and later experienced the break-up of his parents' marriage, followed by the death of his mother. After she died he and his brother Guy were adopted by their Irish aunts on Tyneside, and from the age of 14 attended St Cuthbert's Roman Catholic Grammar School in Newcastle on Tyne. Despite the fact that the VI Form then taught only science for Higher School Certificate, he studied English and Latin on his own. In 1934, he gained a first at Armstrong College, Durham University, in Newcastle. He married Surya Kumari Lall in 1936.
He held positions at Liverpool University from 1948 until his death in 1973, at which time he was the Andrew Cecil Bradley Professor of Modern English Literature. His position at Liverpool was taken over by his wife after his death until 1981, when she was appointed a professor at Birkbeck College.