J. A. Cuddon

J. A. Cuddon was born in 1928. He was educated at Douai School and at Brasenose College, Oxford, where, after taking a degree, he did postgraduate work on the concept of evil and the devil in medieval and Renaissance literature. As well as numerous essays, short stories, articles, contributions to encyclopedias, a dozen plays and three libretti, he also published a number of novels, notably A Multitude of Sins, Testament of Iscariot, Acts of Darkness, The Six Wounds and The Bride of Battersea, and two travel books, The Owl's Watchsong: A Study of Istanbul and the Companion Guide to Jugoslavia.

A Dictionary of Literary Terms, the basis of this work, was begun while he was on a fellowship at Cambridge in 1968 and was completed seven years later. In 1980 he published A Dictionary of Sport and Games, a two-million word account of most of the sports and games of the world since 5200 BC, which came out in paperback in 1981. He edited both The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories and The Penguin Book of Horror Stories in 1984, and James Hogg's The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner in 1995. A compulsive traveller, with a special interest in the Balkan and the Near East, his main recreations were going to the theatre, watching sport and pursuing an amateur interest in zoology.

J. A. Cuddon died in March 1996. In its obituary The Times described him as 'one of the great polymaths of his day ... learned and erudite ... [he was] always a pleasure to read'.