Barker Fairley

Barker Fairley
The Group of Seven with Barker Fairley (fourth from left), Arts and Letters Club, Toronto, 1920.
Born	(1887-05-21)May 21, 1887 Barnsley, Yorkshire
Died	October 11, 1986(1986-10-11) (aged 99) Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Nationality	Canadian
Citizenship	Canadian

Barker Fairley, OC (May 21, 1887 – October 11, 1986) was a British-Canadian painter, and scholar who made a significant contribution to the study of German literature, particularly for the work of Goethe.

Although educated and brought up in a strong European tradition and background, Fairley's important life's scholarship in German literature and art criticism was done in Canada and was about Canadian art and Canadian culture. His perspective and writings strongly influenced a burgeoning academic and artistic culture in his new chosen home.

He was born in Barnsley, Yorkshire and died, a Canadian citizen, in his home in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

He was educated at Leeds, and in 1907 was granted a Ph.D. from Jena University in Germany. His first academic appointment was at Jena. Between 1910-15, he joined the faculty at the newly founded University of Alberta in Edmonton. He joined the University of Toronto's German department in 1915 where he taught until the end of his career as a professor.

In 1949, he was invited to Bryn Mawr College to deliver lectures on the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, but was barred entry by the U.S. Department of Justice. He later compiled the texts of the abortive lectures into six essays on Faust.