Robert Kay Gordon (1887–1973) was an English scholar of medieval and early modern English literature and administrator at the University of Alberta in Canada.

In 1913, having graduated from the Universities of University of Toronto and Oxford, Gordon became administrator at the University of Alberta. In 1936 he was appointed as head of the Department of English and became a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada the same year. Between 1943 and 1945, he was elected Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science. He retired from the university in 1950. His colleagues included F. M. Salter, E. Sonet and D. E. Cameron.

Gordon is quoted extensively in The Book of Imaginary Beings by Jorge Luis Borges. In the entry describing the Fastitocalon, Borges includes an extended quote from R.K. Gordon's Anglo Saxon Bestiary.[1][2]

Selected works

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Gordon published widely in his field of English literature, displaying a wide range of interest, from Old English poetry and Chaucer to the Scottish novelists Sir Walter Scott and John Galt.

References

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  1. ^ Schwartzman, Kest (14 June 2011). "The Book of Imaginary Beings: Fastitocalon: Chapter 41". The Book of Imaginary Beings. Retrieved 20 December 2017.
  2. ^ Borges, Jorge Luis (1969). The Book of Imaginary Beings. New York: Dutton. p. 96.