Spencer Kept in America by War; Will Teach Here

One of the many topsy-turvy situations created by the European war involves Theodore Spencer, who will teach here this year as visiting lecturer in English. Up to last June he held the post of assistant professor of English.

Last June Spencer resigned his position, despite the fact that his concluding appointment had another year to run, to go to Cambridge University, England. There he was to take up a life appointment as visiting lecturer in English literature.

Has Year's Leave

When war broke out, Spencer was officially informed by Cambridge that it was up to him whether or not he should go to England this Fall. But in view of unofficial Information that "there would be no one there to teach," he applied for a year's leave of absence from his new post, and was granted a one-year temporary appointment here.

A well-known authority on Elizabethan literature, Spencer is believed to be the first American to held a permanent teaching job in the field of English literature at either Oxford or Cambridge.

During the final examination rush last year, when it was learned that Spencer and three other assistant professors in the department had been given "concluding appointments," nearly 200 undergraduate English concentrators petitioned the University administration for a public explanation.