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John D. Rutherford

British writer

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 11, 2026
Entity authorityQ3182404 ↗
Source-derived summary

John David Rutherford is a British literary critic who is Emeritus Fellow (2008) of The Queen's College, Oxford, a Hispanist and an award-winning novelist and translator from Spanish to English.

Studies

Rutherford attended The Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School in North London. He started his Spanish studies at Wadham College before going on to St Antony's College in 1969, although he had already started lecturing at Queen's College the previous year.

He has been Praelector in Spanish, Laming Resident Fellow, and Secretary of the Laming Committee.

Rutherford lectured on medieval, Golden Age and modern Spanish literature, and modern Spanish-American literature. His interests include Galician studies, and the theory and practice of literary translation. He was decorated by King Juan Carlos of Spain for his 2005 translation of Leopoldo Alas (‘Clarín’)'s La Regenta, the first translation into English of the book.

A past president of the International Association of Galician Studies (AEIG) from 1994 to 1997, Rutherford is the Director of the Centre for Galician Studies at the University of Oxford and belongs to the Association of Hispanists of Great Britain and Ireland. He is an honorary member of the Real Academia Galega (Royal Galician Academy).

He was appointed as doctor honoris causa by the Universidade da Coruña (University of A Coruña) in October 2011.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “John D. Rutherford” as british writer. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around John, Rutherford and British.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2008, 1969, 2005, 1994—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1941-01-01, 1941-08-08—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with John, Rutherford and British providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “John D. Rutherford”, the useful work is to connect “british writer” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3182404. VIAF identifies the subject as 102368757. The Library of Congress control number is n87152027. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2008, 1969, 2005 and 1994.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

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  2. Expand the search: follow John D. Rutherford primary sources, John D. Rutherford archive and John research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “John D. Rutherford” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.