Nitze, William Albert, 1876-1957

Nitze was born on Mar. 20, 1876 in Baltimore, MD; AB (1894) and Ph. D (1899), Johns Hopkins Univ.; studied at European universities, 1896-98; lecturer in romance languages, Columbia Univ., 1899-1903; assoc. professor and professor of romance languages, Amherst, 1903-8; professor, UC Berkeley, 1908-9; became professor and head of the dept. of romance languages and literatures at the Univ. of Chicago in 1909; Pyne professor, Princeton Univ., 1932; professor of French, UCLA, 1942-46; named Chevalier, Legion of Honor (France), 1928; served as president of the Modern Language Assn., 1929-30; trustee of the Newberry Library, 1935-42; editor of Corneille's selected works (with S.L. Galpin, 1907); other publications include The Old French Grail romance Perlesvaus : a study of its principal sources (1902), A history of French literature from the earliest times to the great war (1922), and Arthurian romance and modern poetry and music (c1940); he died on July 5, 1957.

William A. Nitze (1876-1957), Andrew MacLeish Distinguished Service Professor of Romance Languages and Literature 1935-1941, came to the University of Chicago as a full professor to become head of the Romance Languages Department in 1901. Prior to his appointment he had been a lecturer at Columbia University (1899-1903), associate professor and professor of Romance Languages at Amherst (1903-1908) and professor of Romance Languages at the University of California (1908-1909). After his retirement from the University of Chicago he taught again at the University of California (1942-1946). At the University of Chicago Professor Nitze took a keen interest in his students as manifested in his articles on the problems and quality of contemporary education and in his papers by the records of his association with La Maison Française. He is most noted, however, as the originator and director of the Arthurian Romances Project, a long-standing project at the University of Chicago to trace the Arthurian legends and the story of the Holy Grail through the various literatures of medieval and post-medieval Europe. At the time of his retirement he was regarded as one of the leading American figures in Romance languages and literature.

Professor of romance languages, University of Chicago, 1909-1941.

Nitze was chairman of the Pacific Coast Committee for the Humanities, American Council of Learned Societies. He was a friend of Alma Mahler.

Biography

Nitze was born on March 20, 1876 in Baltimore, Maryland; AB (1894) and Ph.D (1899), Johns Hopkins University; studied at European universities, 1896-98; lecturer in romance languages, Columbia University, 1899-1903; associate professor and professor of romance languages, Amherst, 1903-08; professor, UC Berkeley, 1908-09; became professor and head of the department of romance languages and literatures at the University of Chicago in 1909; Pyne professor, Princeton University, 1932; professor of French, UCLA, 1942-46; named Chevalier, Legion of Honor (France), 1928; served as president of the Modern Language Association, 1929-30; trustee of the Newberry Library, 1935-42; editor of Corneille's selected works (with S.L. Galpin, 1907); other publications include The Old French Grail romance Perlesvaus: a study of its principal sources (1902), A history of French literature from the earliest times to the great war (1922), and Arthurian romance and modern poetry and music (c. 1940); he died on July 5, 1957.