The Executive Council of the Joseph Conrad Society of America announces the award of The Ian P. Watt Award for Lifetime Achievement in Conrad Studies to an exceptional and distinguished Conrad scholar, Professor Allan H. Simmons. Though Allan needs no introduction in our community of scholars – to be a Conradian is to know him and know the importance of his work – a few words signaling his massive contributions to Conrad studies is warranted.
Professor Allan H. Simmons, professor emeritus of English Literature in the School of Arts and Humanities at St. Mary’s University, Twickenham, London, is a longtime central officer of the Executive Committee of the Joseph Conrad Society (UK), editor of The Conradian, and Director of the Centre for Joseph Conrad Studies at St. Mary’s University.
He has published an astonishing twenty monographs, editions, and edited volumes concerning Conrad—texts foundational to the existence of the field, and to the work of other scholars in it—alongside a wide range of influential essays, while also serving as the General Editor of the prize-winning Cambridge Edition of the Works of Joseph Conrad.
In addition to these momentous research accomplishments, Allan is also a defining figure of the Conradian community: someone who has for decades, with his singular smile, wit, gracious generosity, and capacious command of all things Conradian and Bob Dylan, deeply dedicated himself to the development and solidarity of Conrad scholars of all ages and from all over the world.