Laurence (David) Lerner (born 12 December 1925) is a South African born British literary critic and poet.

He was born in Cape Town to parents of Lithuanian-Jewish ancestry, and educated at the University of Cape Town and Pembroke College, Cambridge.

He was lecturer in English, University College of the Gold Coast, 1949-53, tutor then lecturer in English, Queen's University, Belfast, 1953-62, lecturer then reader then professor of English, University of Sussex 1962-84 and professor of English, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, 1985-95.

He was at one point associated with the group of poets known as The Movement.

See also

• List of South Africans
• List of Jews from Sub-Saharan Africa
• List of British Jews

1925 births | Academics of Queen's University of Belfast | British poets | British Jews | Jewish poets | Living people | Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge