W. J. Mc Cormack is former Professor of Literary History and head of the English Department at Goldsmith's College, University of London. His publications include A Festschrift for Francis Stuart (1972), Sheridan Le Fanu and Victorian Ireland (1980, 1991 and 1997), Ascendancy and Tradition in Anglo-Irish Literary History (1985), From Burke to Beckett (1993), Fool of the Family: A Life of J. M. Synge (2000), The Silence of Barbara Synge (2003) and Blood Kindred: W. B. Yeats, The Life, The Death, The Politics. He is also the author of a number of volumes of poetry under the name Hugh Maxton.
