of the State University of Iowa, he had been for many years a professor of English literature at leading universities in Taiwan before he joined the faculty of the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1974, where he taught translation and modern Chinese literature until 1985.
曾在台灣各大學授英國文學，並先後在政治大學西語系及師範大學英語系擔任系主任。兩度在美國擔任傅爾布萊特客座教授，為期四年。一九七四年至一九八五年，余氏任香港中文大學中文系教授。