John Northam

Northam attended St Olave’s Grammar School in London and in 1941 received a scholarship to Clare College, Cambridge to read Classics from 1941 to 1942,^[2] then English between 1946 and 1948. In 1950 he was made a Fellow of Clare College,^[4] where he supervised Norman Podhoretz, the American who went on to become a notable writer. In 1953 Northam was awarded a Ph.D. and a lectureship in the Faculty of English at Cambridge. In 1972 he left Cambridge to become a Professor of Modern and Comparative Drama at the University of Bristol.^[2]

His books Ibsen’s Dramatic Method (1953), in which he notably outlines the hidden visual suggestions and parallel characterisations used by the playwright, and Ibsen: A Critical Study (1973), are still counted as standard works. He has been celebrated for capturing the poetry, humour and wisdom of Ibsen's Poems (1871) and verse drama Peer Gynt (1867); for his remarkable translations of the Epic Brand, a long epic poem unfinished from the playwright’s hand, and also the dramatic 1866 play Brand. He also provided composer and producer Kjell-Ole Haune with a translation of Ibsen's poem Terje Vigen that was developed into a multi media musical in 2006. This translation was published in 2006.

His son is the award-winning actor Jeremy Northam, who played Ivor Novello in Robert Altman's Gosford Park.

• Ibsen’s Dramatic Method. A Study of the Prose Dramas. Faber and Faber. London 1953.
• Ibsen’s Dramatic Method. A Study of the Prose Dramas. (2nd Edition). Universitetsforlaget. Oslo 1971.
• Ibsen: A Critical Study. Cambridge University Press 1973.
• Terje Vigen by Henrik Ibsen. KOH Ltd, London 2006 ISBN 978-0-9552306-0-8^{[verification needed]}

• The Collected Poems of Henrik Ibsen in John Northam’s translation, or rather recreation.