Janet Spens


Janet Spens was a Scottish literary scholar specialising in Elizabethan literature.

Life

Laurel Bank School in Glasgow was formed in 1905 by Margaret Hannan Watson and Spens. They were both graduates of St Andrews and Glasgow University. Spens left Watson in charge when she left in 1908.
Spens was the assistant to Regius Professor Macneile Dixon in the Department of English Language and Literature and "tutor to the women students in Arts" at the University of Glasgow, before joining Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford as a fellow and tutor in English. In 1910, she became the first woman to be awarded a Doctor of Letters degree by the University of Glasgow.

Private life

Lodge was very close to Eleanor Lodge who she met in 1911. They lodged at the same address and they hired a cottage from 1916 for nine years at Steeple Aston. They then bought a house together. Spens published "Eleanor Constance Lodge, Terms & Vacations" after Eleanor died in 1936.

Selected works

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