Adaline Erlbacher Glasheen (born 1920 in

Evansville, Indiana Evansville is a city in, and the county seat of, Vanderburgh County, Indiana, United States. The population was 118,414 at the 2020 census, making it the state's third-most populous city after Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, the largest city in ...

– died 1993) was a Joyce scholar who specialised in the study of ''

Finnegans Wake ''Finnegans Wake'' is a novel by Irish literature, Irish writer James Joyce. It is well known for its experimental style and reputation as one of the most difficult works of fiction in the Western canon. It has been called "a work of fiction whi ...

''.

Early life

Born Adaline Erlbacher in 1920 in

, her parents were Irene Tenney Jenner and Frederick Erlbacher. She attended public schools in Evansville and graduated from Central High School, where she eventually was honored as one of their most famous graduates. She attended

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universit ...

, transferring to the

University of Mississippi The University of Mississippi (byname Ole Miss) is a public research university that is located adjacent to Oxford, Mississippi, and has a medical center in Jackson. It is Mississippi's oldest public university and its largest by enrollment. ...

where she received her BA in English. She later received her MA in English Literature when she began seminal work on

Percy Bysshe Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 17928 July 1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his achie ...

Personal life

While at the University of Mississippi she met Francis James Glasheen, whom she married in 1937. In 1946 her only child, Alison Elizabeth Glasheen Osborne was born. She also had three grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. She began her life's work on ''Finnegans Wake'' by James Joyce while raising her child.

Life as an author and lecturer

Glasheen became part of an international group of Joyce scholars including Thornton Wilder,

Hugh Kenner William Hugh Kenner (January 7, 1923 – November 24, 2003) was a Canadian literary scholar, critic and professor. He published widely on Modernist literature with particular emphasis on James Joyce, Ezra Pound, and Samuel Beckett. His major ...

, Clive Hart, James Atherton,

Richard Ellmann Richard David Ellmann, FBA (March 15, 1918 – May 13, 1987) was an American literary critic and biographer of the Irish writers James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, and William Butler Yeats. He won the U.S. National Book Award for Nonfiction for ''James ...

, and

Louis Mink Louis O. Mink Jr. (September 3, 1921 – January 19, 1983) was a Philosophy of history, philosopher of history whose works challenged early philosopher of history R. G. Collingwood and were part of a postmodern dialogue on history and historical ...

; who were devoted to the study of ''

''. Initially, she published numerous articles on ''Finnegans Wake'' culminating in the publication of ''A Census of Finnegans Wake'' by

Faber and Faber Faber and Faber Limited, usually abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in London. Published authors and poets include T. S. Eliot (an early Faber editor and director), W. H. Auden, Margaret Storey, William Golding, Samuel B ...

of London. She also produced two further editions of her census. She attended numerous international Joyce Symposia and was in demand as a Joyce Lecturer at such universities as

The Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...

in Paris and the

University of Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 1846 ...

Posthumous publications

Adaline Glasheen was a passionate letter writer. Two volumes of her correspondence have been published. ''A Tour of the Darkling Plain: The "Finnegans Wake" Letters of Thornton Wilder and Adaline Glasheen'', ed. Edward M. Burns with Joshua A. Gaylord (University College Dublin Press, 2001) and ''A Passion for Joyce: The Letters of Hugh Kenner and Adaline Glasheen'', ed. Edward M. Burns (University College Dublin Press, 2008).

References

*http://www.librarything.com/author/glasheenadaline *http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Glasheen%2C%20Adaline *https://web.archive.org/web/20101025200111/http://www.joshuagaylord.com/Tour.htm {{DEFAULTSORT:Glasheen, Adaline 1920 births 1993 deaths James Joyce scholars Indiana University alumni University of Mississippi alumni