MacDonald Pairman Jackson FNZAH

Background

Jackson was born in Auckland on 13 October 1938, the son of Donald Leslie Jackson and Margaret Wyld Pairman.

Education

Jackson was educated at Auckland Grammar School, obtained a Bachelor from Auckland University in 1959 and an Master of Arts(English) in 1960. He attended Merton College, Oxford and qualified for B.Litt in 1964.

Career

Most of his work is on English Renaissance drama. He specializes in authorship attribution. He is also internationally recognised, particularly for his work on Shakespeare"s texts.

He is currently Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Auckland.

Jackson"s Studies in Attribution: Middleton and Shakespeare (Salzburg, 1979) helped establish the dramatic canon of Middleton"son From 1984–1991 Jackson contributed the annual reviews of "Editions and Textual Studies" to Shakespeare Survey.

Jackson has written twelve books as either author or editors His more recent works include: Determining the Shakespeare Canon: Arden of Faversham and A Lover"s Complaint (2015) Defining Shakespeare: "Pericles" as Test Case (Oxford, 2003) – author Second and third volumes of the Cambridge edition of The Works of John Webster (2003 and 2007) – co-editor with two others The Revenger"s Tragedy and writing the essay "Early Modern Authorship: Canons and Chronologies" – editor and author In the field of early modern drama he has made over 200 contributions to books and academic journals.

He current research projects are Shakespeare and his contemporaries, New Zealand literature, Poetry in English, and a major project: a fourth volume of the Cambridge Works of John Webster.

Jackson is working on this together with David Carnegie and David Gunby. In addition Jackson is an anthologist, literary historian, and critic of New Zealand poetry. He contributed to the Oxford History of New Zealand Literature in English (1991) writing the chapter on "Poetry: Beginnings to 1945".

Jackson has been involved in broadcasting, introducing NZBC"s monthly poetry programme in 1966, and a New Zealand Book Awards judge.

He has been a competitor in veterans running and his interests include music, theatre, film, and gardening. He currently resides in Auckland.

Achievements

• Jackson was educated at Auckland Grammar School, obtained a Bachelor from Auckland University in 1959 and an Master of Arts(English) in 1960. He attended Merton College, Oxford and qualified for B.Litt in 1964. In 1964 he returned to Auckland University as a lecturer. He was appointed Associate Professor in 1978 and Professor in 1989. Jackson obtained a Folger fellowship in 1989 and a Huntington Library fellowship in 1993. He was a Christensen Fellow at Street Catherine"s College, Oxford in 2000 and South T Lee Professorial Fellow at the School of Advanced Study, University of London from January to June 2005. He received a Distinguished Teaching Award in 2000. He retired from the University in 2004. In 2008 he was made a Fellow of the New Zealand Academy of the Humanities (FNZAH). In 2009 he was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand (FRSNZ).

Membership

He is a member of the editorial boards for the Shakespeare Quarterly, the Arden Critical Companions series, the Digital Renaissance Editions series, and The New Oxford Shakespeare. He was elected a Life Member of the Australian and New Zealand Shakespeare Association in 2004.

Connections

associate:

Thomas Middleton