Evelyn Mary Spearing Simpson (1885 - 1963)

Biography

Evelyn Mary Simpson (2 September 1885 – 8 September 1963) was an English literary critic and scholar, and the first woman to earn a D.Phil. from Oxford University. Though she was required to relinquish her appointment at St Hugh's College, Oxford upon marrying in 1921, Simpson continued her work as an independent scholar. She is best known for her scholarship on John Donne, including a magisterial edition of his sermons and editions of other prose works, but she wrote on other topics in English Renaissance literature as well.