Stock, Irvin, 1920-....

Writer and scholar Irvin Stock was born in New York City on April 16, 1920. While a student at South Side High School in Newark, New Jersey, Stock won awards in short story contests sponsored by New York University and Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. Stock received a BA degree in English from New York University in 1941 and a Masters from Columbia University Teachers College. From 1943-1946, Stock served in the Army Air Force and his teaching experience in the Air Force Officer Candidates School was what inspired him to pursue a career in higher education. After teaching at Bergen Junior College in Teaneck, New Jersey, from 1947-1948, Stock returned to Columbia University to earn a PhD, which he completed in 1952. After conducting research in London and studying in France on a Fulbright Fellowship, Stock completed his dissertation on William Hale White, better known by his pseudonym Mark Rutherford, which was published in 1956 as William Hale White (Mark Rutherford): A Critical Study with a forward by Lionel Trilling, Stock’s professor and mentor at Columbia.

After a one year Ford Foundation Fellowship from 1951–1952, Stock began teaching at Rollins College in Florida. In 1965, Stock was awarded a Fulbright to teach at the University of Montpellier in France, which was extended to include a summer session at France’s University of Nice. In 1966, he was hired by the University of Massachusetts, Boston, where he became a full professor and served as chair of the English Department.

In addition to his book on William Hale White, Stock also published Fiction as Wisdom: From Goethe to Bellow (1980), Ironic Out of Love: The Novels of Thomas Mann (1994), and a booklet on Mary McCarthy (1968). Stock is also the author of many plays, short stories, and academic articles.

He and his wife, Phyllis, whom he met at New York University, live in Brookline, Massachusetts.

"Irvin Stock." Contemporary Authors Online (reproduced in Biography Resource Center). http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC (accessed December 2009). Additional biographical information derived from the collection.

From the guide to the Irvin Stock papers, 1882–2004, (University of Delaware Library - Special Collections)