Education

Spence received a Bachelor in English literature at the University of Georgia, an Master of Arts at Tulane University, and obtained a Doctor of Philosophy from King"s College London. He returned to teach at Georgia, and later taught at King Saud University in Saudi Arabia and Hiroshima University and Doshisha University in Japan. After first visiting a friend in Sydney in 1988 he returned each Christmas until 1998.

From 1998 he became a permanent resident of Australia and resided in Double Bay.

He was a long-standing member of the editorial board of the Jane Austen Society of Australia, became an Australian citizen in May 2011, and died at his Sydney home in Double Bay the following month.

Career

His 2003 biography, Becoming Jane Austen, was adapted into a feature film starring Anne Hathaway in 2007. Spence"s biography Becoming Jane Austen was published in 2003. University of Wisconsin-Madison English professor Joseph Wiesenfarth noted in a review that the work "is one of the best half-dozen books published on Austen in the last quarter century, at least.

lieutenant is a remarkably learned book written in a remarkably lucid style and a joy to read.

The research is so substantial, wide-ranging, and detailed that any conjecture Spence builds on it has the feel of bedrock itself. Becoming Jane Austen was the detailed scholarship which provided the inspiration for the film Becoming Jane which appeared in 2007 and on which he was a consultant.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Becoming Jane Austen

    (Jon Spence's fascinating biography of Jane Austen paints ...)

  • Becoming Jane Austen by Jon Spence (2007-07-03)
  • Becoming Jane Austen - The True Love Story That Inspired The Classic Novels

Membership

He was a long-standing member of the editorial board of the Jane Austen Society of Australia, became an Australian citizen in May 2011, and died at his Sydney home in Double Bay the following month.