Born in Lancaster, England, Robert Samuel Woof was the youngest of three children; their father was bailiff of Home Farm, part of the Royal Albert Institution, Lancaster Early years: attended Scotforth School and Lancaster Royal Grammar School 1949: on a cycling tour: first visit to Dove Cottage 1953: graduation from Pembroke College, Oxford, where he had studied with a scholarship 1958: married Pamela Moore 1958–61: doctorate with Goldsmith Travelling Fellowship as a lecturer at University of Toronto, PhD thesis on 'The Literary Relations of Wordsworth and Coleridge 1795–1803' 1961–62: Lord Adams of Ennerdale Fellow 1962–71: University of Newcastle upon Tyne Lecturer 1971–92: Reader in English Literature at University of Newcastle upon Tyne 1983–84: Leverhulme Fellow 1974–89: Honorary Keeper of collections of books, manuscripts and paintings at Dove Cottage 1978–95: Honorary Secretary and Treasurer of Dove Cottage 1982–88: Vice-Chairman, Drama Panel, Arts Council 1985–86: Acting chairman, Drama Panel, Arts Council 1983–84: Vice-Chairman, Literature Panel 1984–88: Chairman, Literature Panel 1989–2005: Director, Wordsworth Trust and Wordsworth museum 1993–2000: Chairman, English Touring Theatre 1998: Commander of the Order of the British Empire 2000: Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature 2005: Died in Newcastle upon Tyne, England.
Books
William Wordsworth: Critical Heritage, Routledge, an imprint of Taylor & Francis Books Ltd – 22 November 2001,, Hardcover
With Michael Broughton; William Clarke; John Murdoch; Joanna Selbourne; Greg Smith; The Spooner Collection of British Watercolours, Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere, 31 January 2006,
With Jean-Paul Martinon; Hamish Robinson; Daniel Sturgis; Rebecca O'Connor; Daniel Buren: At the Wordsworth Trust, Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere, September 2005,
Treasures of the Wordsworth Trust: Published to Celebrate the Opening of the Jerwood Centre at the Wordsworth Trust by Seamus Heaney, 2 June 2005, Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere, June 2005,
With Daniel Sturgis; Matthew Collings; Kathy Kubickif; Abstract Logic, Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere, May 2005,
With Conrad Atkinson; Richard Cork; Henry Shukman; Common Sights, Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere, January 2005,
With Keith Coventry; Des Lawrence; Matthew Hollis; Joan Key; Kay Rosen; Lily van der Stokker; Daniel Sturgis; Between Letters and Abstraction, Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere, January 2005,
With Jack Mapanje; Simon Morley; An Elegy Wrote in an English Churchyard, Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere, January 2005,
With Christopher Bucklow; Marina Warner; Roger Malbert; Adam Phillips; If This Be Not I, Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere, June 2003,
