THE race to win poetry’s most prestigious academic post has turned dirty after Oxford academics were anonymously sent a lurid dossier accusing Derek Walcott, the frontrunner and Nobel laureate, of being a sex pest.

The package was circulated last week to staff and graduates eligible to vote in next Saturday’s election for the Oxford professorship of poetry, as well as to the offices of Cherwell, a student newspaper.

The dossier recounts a sexual harassment claim against Walcott, 79, when he taught at Harvard in the 1980s.

The poet was reprimanded following the allegation that he tried to pressure a female student into sleeping with him.

Another harassment claim against Walcott dating from 1996 has also reemerged, sparking a heated debate at Oxford.

Walcott’s main challenger for the professorship is Ruth Padel, a poet and travel writer, who is seeking to become the first woman to hold the post in its 300-year history.

Opponents of Walcott, who is from the Caribbean island of St Lucia, argue that it would disgrace the university to give such a coveted role - second only to the poet laureate - to a man with such a libidinous record.

Others, however, say past indiscretions should not be used to besmirch the reputation of the poet, widely considered one of the best in the world.

Professor Hermione Lee, president of Wolfson College and a leader of the Walcott campaign, was one recipient of the dirty dossier. Criticising the “campaign of vilification”, Lee said: “The fact that this has been anonymously circulated is rather shocking. It is an unpleasant way of carrying on.

“Should great poets who behave badly be locked away from social interaction? We are acting as purveyors of poetry not of chastity.”

Supporters of Walcott have pointed out that, if he is victorious, his job will involve giving lectures rather than tutorials behind closed doors.

However, Valentine Cun-ningham, an English professor and backer of Padel, said: “I am glad this issue has finally been raised. Up to now, everyone has just been too polite to mention it. A lot of his backers are women who obviously knew nothing about this or thought it was impolite or politically incorrect to mention it.”

The Oxford professorship dates back to 1708 and previous holders have included Matthew Arnold, WH Auden, Robert Graves and Seamus Heaney.

Next weekend’s election, to be held in the Examination Schools, is expected to be attended by thousands of the 135,000 graduates and academics eligible to vote for the successor to the current holder, Chris-topher Ricks.

Walcott would be the first black incumbent if he wins. An outside candidate is Arvind Mehrotra, the Indian poet.

Walcott’s stature is not in doubt. In 1992, the Nobel committee gave him the literature prize for his “poetic oeuvre of great luminosity, sustained by a historical vision, the outcome of a multicultural commitment”.

His supporters include Alan Hollinghurst, the Booker prize-winning novelist, and Robert Conquest, the historian and poet. Among Padel’s heavy-weight backers are Carol Ann Duffy, the new poet laureate, and Lord Bragg, the broadcaster.

About 50-100 electors, including dons and heads of colleges, have been sent the Walcott dossier, posted from London. The only clue to the sender’s identity came in a note with Cherwell’s package. It was signed “Sandra and Jane”.

The envelopes contain photo-copied pages from an obscure academic work, The Lecherous Professor, which detail Walcott’s attempts to lure the Harvard student into bed.

In 1982, the student claimed that after his class he invited her for coffee, asked whether she had a boyfriend and how she made love. “Imagine me making love to you? What would I do?” he asked.

He is said to have used French codewords to invite her to have sex, asking in class “oui?” to which he hoped she would reply “oui” or “peut-être”. She spurned him and later received only a C grade.

Harvard reprimanded Walcott and told him to write an apology. He argued that teaching poetry often involved a “deliberately personal and intense” relationship with the student.

The 1996 claim came from Nicole Niemi, a student at Boston University. She sued Walcott for sexual harassment and “offensive sexual physical contact”. The two reached a settlement.

This weekend Padel denounced the dossier as “horrible, a murky area I know nothing about”. She pointed out, however: “There have been legal cases [against Walcott]. He has admitted sexual harassment . . .

The university might be being seen not to take admitted sexual harassment seriously.”

Walcott’s editor at the publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux declined to comment and said the poet was “in Africa at the moment and unreachable”.

Additional reporting: Ruth Lewy

Lines from the dossier

The sexual harassment claims against Derek Walcott include one in 1982, when a Harvard student complained he had pressured her for sex. Her version of a conversation they had appeared in a book and has now been circulated to Oxford electors.

Walcott: Don’t talk about poetry. I don’t want to talk about poetry.
Student: I wrote a poem about a guy I was with last Friday night.
W: What did you do with this guy?
S: What do you mean? . . . I made love with him.
W: How did you make love?
S: Why should I tell you? It’s none of your business.
W: Imagine me making love to you. What would I do?
S: Huh? I guess you’d be sort of slow and deliberate.

The poet was reprimanded and apologised but did not discuss details of what may have happened.

Walcott was again publicly accused of harassment in 1996.

He was sued by Nicole Niemi, a student in his creative writing class at Boston University. She is now an author using the name N M Kelby. The two reached a settlement.

Kelby refused to comment when contacted this weekend.

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