Albert Léon Guérard (1880–1959) was a prominent scholar of comparative literature. Guérard taught at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

for many years.

Life

Guérard was born on 3 November 1880 in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. For two years, Guérard was assistant professor of History at the Paris école normale supérieure. Afterwards, he studying at both the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

and the Sorbonne – in 1906, he was agrégated at the latter. The same year, he emigrated to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, where he taught the French language at

Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim ...

. In 1907, newly wed to Wilhelmina Macartney, he moved to

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. Here, Guérard taught French at

from 1907 to 1913. Until 1924, he taught at the

International Rice Research Institute The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) is an international agricultural research and training organization with its headquarters in Los Baños, Laguna, in the Philippines, and offices in seventeen countries. IRRI is known for its w ...

; his tenure was interrupted by his involvement in the First World War. A prolific author, he published works on French and European civilization,

world literature World literature is used to refer to the world's total national literature and the circulation of works into the wider world beyond their country of origin. In the past, it primarily referred to the masterpieces of Western European literature. ...

, and international languages, also holding the position of protector of the

Occidental language Interlingue (; ISO 639 ''ie'', ''ile''), originally Occidental (), is an international auxiliary language created in 1922 and renamed in 1949. Its creator, Edgar de Wahl, sought to achieve maximal grammatical regularity and natural characte ...

's ''Occidental-Academie'' in 1936.Cosmoglotta A, 1936, p. 1
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Books

* ''Testament of a liberal.'' Harvard University Press, 1956. * ''Art for art's sake.'' Lothrop, Lee and Shepard Company, 1936. * ''Education of a humanist.'' Harvard University Press, 1949. * ''Preface to world literature.'' H. Holt and Company, 1940. * ''Five masters of French romance'' with

Anatole France (; born ; 16 April 1844 – 12 October 1924) was a French poet, journalist, and novelist with several best-sellers. Ironic and skeptical, he was considered in his day the ideal French man of letters.Pierre Loti Pierre Loti (; pseudonym of Louis Marie-Julien Viaud ; 14 January 1850 – 10 June 1923) was a French naval officer and novelist, known for his exotic novels and short stories.This article is derived largely from the ''Encyclopædia Britannica Ele ...

, Paul Bourget,

Maurice Barrès Auguste-Maurice Barrès (; 19 August 1862 – 4 December 1923) was a French novelist, journalist, philosopher, and politician. Spending some time in Italy, he became a figure in French literature with the release of his work ''The Cult of the S ...

Romain Rolland Romain Rolland (; 29 January 1866 – 30 December 1944) was a French dramatist, novelist, essayist, art historian and Mysticism, mystic who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915 "as a tribute to the lofty idealism of his literary pro ...

. Scribners, 1916.

Historical works

* ''French Prophets of Yesterday: A Study of Religious Thought Under the Second Empire.''(1913
online
broad-range survey of many French intellectuals * (1914) * ''A Short History of the International Language Movement'' (1921).
at Google Books
* ''France in the Classical Age. The Life and Death of an Ideal.'' Scribners, 1928. . * ''Napoleon III'' (1943) . * ''France: A Short History.'' Norton, 1946. * ''Napoleon I.'' (1957) * ''French civilization from its origins to the close of the middle ages.'' (1920) * ''Napoléon III.'' Harvard University Press, 1943. * ''Beyond hatred; the democratic ideal in France and America.'' Negro Universities Press, 1969. .

References

Sources

* *

External links

* 1880 births 1959 deaths Comparative literature academics Stanford University Department of English faculty Interlingue speakers {{US-academic-bio-stub