May, Frederick

Born in Kensington, London, England

Died from bronchopneumonia and diabetes mellitus

Family: Father, John May, labourers; Mother, Elizabeth Ann Owen

Married: London, England, Heather Constance Armstrong (4 sons) (also 1 son with Fiona Gibbons)

Education:
1926 to 1933 Primary Schools in London and Middlesex
Free Place at the Quintin School (Polytechnic Secondary School for Boys); London County Council Award to continue in Sixth Form
1938 to 1939 Summer scholarships to Italy awards from the Italian Government and the London County Council
Summer 1939 Studied at the University of Perugia
1939 Higher School Certificate in English, French, Italian and Subsidiary Maths
1941 Birbeck College, University of London
June 1941 First class pass in Italian
1945 BA
Bedford, Birkbeck and University Colleges, University of London
1947 First Class Honours in Italian; awarded college, university and state scholarships for research; registered for a PhD (cultural life of Naples during the 14th century thesis uncompleted)

Career:
1941 to 1945 Friends War Relief Service centre in Devon as a conscientious objector
1945 to 1946 Secretary, University of London Union
1946 to 1947 President, University of London Union
1947 to 1948 President, Birkbeck College Union
1947 to 1949 Student Governor, Birkbeck College
1948 Part-time Assistant Lecturer, London School of Economics
1949 Lecturer (1959 Senior Lecturer) and Head of Department of Italian, University of Leeds; Chairman, Leeds Civic Arts Guild; Member, Drama Sub-Committee, West Riding Youth Committee; President, Student Theatre Group
1961 One of the four chief papers at the International Congress of Pirandello Studies, Venice
1963 Appointed Professor of Italian, University of Sydney commencing in January 1964

Publications:
Leeds lib copy of foscolos essays on petrarch, 1961
Bitter waters: tr from Pirandello, 1962
Del Giudice proofs of the key to Foscolo's Hypercalypseos, Pirandello Society, Leeds, 1963
Hughes-Foscolo Translation From Petrarch, 1963
J.C. translations of poems by Ugo Foscolo, 1963
Concupiscence of the oppressor, 1964
Three major symbols in four plays by Pirandello, [Allen Press, Lawrence, Kansas,] 1964
Prose passages for translation into Italian, 1964
Selected, translated and introduced by Frederick May, Luigi Pirandello, Short Stories, Oxford University Press, London, 1965
Modern Italian poetry, 1970
Selected and translated by Frederick May, with an introduction and bibliography by Felicity Firth, Luigi Pirandello, Short stories, Oxford University Press, London, 1975
Drafts and proofs of Ugo Foscolo's lines to Callirhoe
Paulus Silentiarius and Ugo Foscolo's Lines to Callirhoe

Translated over 50 Italian plays; published a large number of articles in learned journals

See also:
Kiernan, Suzanne, editor, Italian studies in memory of Frederick May: with an unpublished essay by Frederick May, inaugural Professor of Italian at the University of Sydney 1964-1976