Bernard Bergonzi

Bernard Bergonzi FRSL (13 April 1929 – 20 September 2016) was a British literary scholar, critic, and poet. He was Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Warwick and an expert on T. S. Eliot.

He was born in Lewisham, London, the son of an Italian dance band musician, and after a period spent as a clerk in the City studied at South-East London Technical College, Newbattle Abbey College and Wadham College, Oxford, where he read English. He had an academic position in Manchester before moving to Warwick, and held visiting professorships at American universities.