Gabriel Pearson was instrumental in the creation of what became the New Left Review
CasparPearson
Tue 6 Apr 2021 13.29 EDT
Last modified on Tue 6 Apr 2021 13.31 EDT
My father, Gabriel Pearson, who has died aged 88, was a scholar, critic and teacher of literature. He spent most of his career at the University of Essex, joining its newly established department of literature in 1965. Even after his formal retirement in 1995, he kept up various part-time roles at Essex, eventually stopping work in 2009, when he became an emeritus professor.
He was born into a Polish-Jewish family in the west end of London. His father, Nathan Pearson, was a cabinet maker, and his mother, Annie (nee Jacobovitch), was a tailor. At the outbreak of the second world war Gabriel initially remained in the city and recalled sleeping in Russell Square tube station during the blitz. Subsequently he was evacuated to various locations in the countryside, most happily to a village near Banbury in Oxfordshire.