Nicoll, John Ramsay Allardyce (1894–1976)

English literary historian. A leading authority on the development of drama, he wrote various histories revised as A History of English Drama 1660–1900 1952–59, as well as The Development of the Theatre 1948, World Drama 1949, and The Elizabethans 1956. He also published biographies of William Blake 1922, John Dryden 1923, and Shakespeare 1953, and edited the Annual Shakespeare Survey from its inception 1948.

He was born in Glasgow and educated at Stirling High School and Glasgow University. He became professor of English at King's College, London; held the chair of drama at Yale; was professor of English at Birmingham 1945–61; and directed the Shakespeare Institute at Stratford 1951–61.