Ellmann, Richard, 1918-1987

Richard Ellmann, Professor of English Literature at Northwestern, Oxford and Emory Universities, was a leading scholar and biographer of James Joyce, Oscar Wilde and William Butler Yeats.

Richard David Ellmann was born on March 15, 1918 in Highland Park, Michigan. From his early education in Michigan, he attended Yale University where he obtained a B.A. degree in 1939, M.A. degree in 1941, and a Ph.D. degree in 1947. After serving for three years in the O.S.S. during World War II, he obtained a Bachelor of Letters degree from Trinity College, Dublin in 1947. During 1942-1951 he taught at Harvard University on an irregular basis. In 1951 he became a member of the Department of English at Northwestern University where he remained until 1968.

He returned to the faculty at Yale for one year before accepting a post at New College, Oxford (England). Ellmann's distinguished career ended there with his death in 1987.

Ellmann was an internationally known scholar, author and editor and an authority on James Joyce and W. B. Yeats. His scholarly pursuit of these two literary figures alone brought him much recognition. He was the recipient of two Guggenheim fellowships in 1950 and 1957, and was named Franklin Bliss Snyder professor of English at Northwestern in 1963. He received the National Book award in 1960.