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I have been reading a wonderful book of literary history by RW Chambers called Man's Unconquerable Mind, published in 1939.
I came to Chambers via Tolkien. Chambers was an older contemporary and friend of Tolkien, a philologist (one of the best Old English English philologists), a Professor at University College London, and a Roman Catholic+ (best remembered for a wonderful biography of Thomas More).
[+Note added - This is a mistake. Chambers was an Anglo Catholic - that is a member of the Catholic wing of the Church of England.]
(Indeed, it was Chambers late withdrawal from the shortlist for Professor of Anglo Saxon at Oxford that gave Tolkien that Chair at an unusually early age - and despite being, on paper at least, inferior to the other remaining shortlisted candidate, Tolkien's ex-Tutor, Kenneth Sisam.)
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I would count Chambers as a considerable discovery in my reading, although I have so far only read two and a half of his books: he is wise, creative, a fine writer and a true scholar who immediately won my trust.
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Man's UM begins with The Venerable Bede, who is a 'local hero' in these parts, and I often visit the museum on the site of his old monastery, with a re-created Saxon farm.
And Bede is a towering figure in the history of the West. But how important?
Chambers (agreeing with George Sarton) states :
During a period of 500 years, from AD 600 to AD 1100, Bede is the only master mind of Christendom...
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