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Alfred Owen Aldridge
Alfred Owen Aldridge (1915-2005) was a professor of French and comparative literature, founder-editor of the journal Comparative Literature Studies, and author of books on a wide r...view moreAlfred Owen Aldridge (1915-2005) was a professor of French and comparative literature, founder-editor of the journal Comparative Literature Studies, and author of books on a wide range of literature studies.
He was born in Buffalo, New York on December 16, 1915. He was awarded degrees by Indiana University, the University of Georgia for his M.S., and Duke University, where he took his Ph.D. In 1952-1953 he had started the Fulbright Program in France, which led to his undertaking a second doctorate, on the subject of “La Littérature Comparée” which he completed at the University of Paris in 1955. Following his doctorates he was employed in the department of English at the University of Maryland, then in 1967 became professor of French and comparative literature at the University of Illinois.
Dr. Aldridge published widely and became well-known as a pioneer of colonial American literary studies and as an explorer of East-West literary relations. He served as president of the American Comparative Literature Association. In 1963, together with Melvin J. Friedman, he founded the journal Comparative Literature Studies, which he edited or co-edited for many years. He retired in 1986 and, following his retirement, his lifetime’s work was awarded the unusual honor by his colleagues of three festschrifts: Deism, Masonry and the Enlightenment: Essays Honoring Alfred Owen Aldridge (1987) by J. A. Leo Lemay (ed.); Aesthetics and the Literature of Ideas: Essays in Honor of A. Owen Aldridge (1990) by François Jost and Melvin J. Friedman (eds.); and Crosscurrents in the Literatures of Asia and the West: Essays in Honor of A. Owen Aldridge (1997) by Masayuki Akiyama and Yiu-nam Leung (eds.).
Dr. Aldridge died on January 29, 2005, aged 89. The A. Owen Aldridge Prize, an annual prize-paper written by a graduate student and published by Comparative Literature Studies, was established in his memory.view less