Ian Campbell was born in Lausanne, where his father was minister of the Scots Kirk throughout the War, and educated in Swiss and Scottish schools, then Aberdeen (MA) and Edinburgh (PhD) Universities, joining the staff of Edinburgh's English Literature department in 1967. With spells as visiting professor in Canada, USA, Japan and Europe he has been there ever since, and became Professor of Scottish and Victorian Literature in 1992 and Professor Emeritus of Scottish and Victorian Literature and Professorial Fellow in 2009.
He teaches nineteenth and twentieth century literature (particularly fiction) and the Bible and Literature, both English and Scottish; he is one of the editors of the Duke-Edinburgh edition of the Carlyle Letters (now with 34 volumes complete) and has written extensively on Carlyle, on Victorian literature and on Scottish literature since Burns.
