Alvin A. Lee

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Alvin A. Lee, B.A., M.Div., Ph.D., is a literary critic. The majority of his academic career--some 39 years--was spent at McMaster University in Hamilton; he served as President and vice-chancellor of that university from 1980 to 1990. The McMaster Museum of Art is housed in a building named in his honour because of his work acquiring art for McMaster University. He received honorary doctorates from Victoria University in the University of Toronto, and from McMaster University, and was made an honorary professor at Beijing University and Heilongjiang University.

His academic interests lie in the fields of Old English literature, the Bible and literature, and literary theory.

Lee currently serves as the General Editor of the 30-volume Collected Works of Northrop Frye project; he has edited two volumes himself, including an edition of Frye's The Great Code. He also wrote the introduction to the Penguin Modern Classics editions of The Great Code and Words with Power. He is perhaps best known for his work on Beowulf: Gold-Hall and Earth-Dragon: Beowulf as Metaphor. He authored other books on Old English poetry, The Guest Hall of Eden: Four Essays on the Design of Old English Poetry, and on the Canadian poet and playwright, James Reaney.