Author. He was born in Sunderland, England and raised in Edinburgh, Scotland where his father was the Chief Rabbi of Scotland. He attended University of Edinburgh. He earned his Master’s Degree with first class honors in 1934 and his doctorate in 1939 from Balliol College at Oxford University in 1939. He became a Professor of English Literature at the University of Chicago in 1939 but left there to work for the British Information Service in New York City and later as second secretary to the British Embassy in Washington D.C. He lectured at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, Indiana University in Bloomington, and University of Cincinatti in Ohio. He also wrote books about the author, Robert Burns. He joined the Sussex University in the 1960s, teaching and as Dean of English Studies. In 1980, he returned to Edinburgh where he died to direct the Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of Edinburgh and retired in 1986. His books include “Scotch Whisky: It’s Past and Present,” “Edinburgh” in 1978, “Glasgow” in 1977, “Literary Landscapes of the British Isles: A Narrative Atlas” in 1979, “Bonnie Prince Charlie” in 2002, “The Novel and the Modern World” in 1939, Critical Approaches to Literature,” “Literary Essay,” “Two Worlds: An Edinburgh Jewish Childhood” his first autobiography published in 1956, “A Third World” in 1971 which was his second autobiography, “A Wee Dram” in 1990, “A Weekly Scotsman and Other Poems” in 1994. His first wife Isobel Mackay Daiches died in 1977. He remarried in 1978 to Hazel Newman Neville Daiches who died in 1986. He and Isobel had a son and 2 daughters.  (bio by: Genet)