Ian Maxwell was an English literature scholar and academic. He was educated at Scotch College and the University of Melbourne, where he gained a B.A. Hons and LL.B. He was admitted to the bar in 1926, and initially practiced as a barrister, before quitting law to attend Oxford University, where he gained a B.Litt. He then briefly taught English literature at the University of Copenhagen, before returning to Australia, where he taught at the University of Sydney. In 1946 he was appointed Professor of English at the University of Melbourne, where he remained until retirement in 1968. His wife Muriel (nee Berry) was an English scholar and occasional poet, and he was also a close friend of A.D. Hope.
