Michael Edwards (literary scholar)

Sir Michael Edwards, OBE (born 29 April 1938) is an Anglo-French poet and academic.

Life
Born in Barnes, SW London, Edwards was educated at Kingston Grammar School and Christ's College, Cambridge, where he read French and Spanish. He wrote his doctoral thesis on Jean Racine, completing it in Paris. He was the longtime professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Warwick until 2002, when he was elected to a professorial chair for the Study of Literary Creation in the English Language at the Collège de France.

Edwards was elected to one of the 40 seats in the Académie Française on 21 February 2013, becoming the first English person to be so honoured. He had been nominated previously in 2008, when he received the second highest number of votes in the fourth and final round of voting (eight votes, behind Michel Schneider who received 10) but since no candidate secured a majority the seat then remained vacant.

Honours
Knighted in the 2014 New Year Honours for "services to British–French cultural relations", Sir Michael has received the following honours:


 * Legion Honneur Chevalier ribbon.svg Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur
 * Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Commandeur ribbon.svg Commandeur de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres
 * [[Image:Order of the British Empire (Civil) Ribbon.png|50px]] OBE
 * [[Image:Knight-Bachelor.ribbon.png|50px]] Knight Bachelor