Bernard MacGregor Walker Knox (November 24, 1914 – July 22, 2010Wolfgang Saxon

''The New York Times'', August 16, 2010.) was an English

classicist Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

, author, and critic who became an American citizen. He was the first director of the

Center for Hellenic Studies The Center for Hellenic Studies (CHS) is a research institute for classics located in Washington, D.C. at 3100 NW Whitehaven Street. It is affiliated with Harvard University. Nestled in Rock Creek Park behind Embassy Row, the Center for Hell ...

.History of the Center for Hellenic Studies
at CHS website (retrieved May 26, 2009).Bernard Knox author listing
at ''

New York Review of Books New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator ...

'' website (retrieved May 25, 2009). In 1992 the

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

selected Knox for the

Jefferson Lecture The Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities is an honorary lecture series established in 1972 by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). According to the NEH, the Lecture is "the highest honor the federal government confers for distinguished ...

, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...

Biography

Knox was born in 1914 in the City of Bradford, Yorkshire, England. He received his B.A. from St John's College, Cambridge in 1936, joined and was wounded in combat with the International Brigades in the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...

, which he joined alongside John Cornford, John Sommerfield and Jan Kurzke. He served in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

.Hugh Lloyd-Jones
"''The Oldest Dead White European Males''-book reviews"
''

National Review ''National Review'' is an American conservative editorial magazine, focusing on news and commentary pieces on political, social, and cultural affairs. The magazine was founded by the author William F. Buckley Jr. in 1955. Its editor-in-chief ...

'', June 7, 1993. In 1939 he married an American, Betty Baur, a novelist who wrote under the pen name Bianca van Orden; G.W. Bowersock
"The Warrior-Humanist: Bernard M.W. Knox (1914–2010).
''

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hu ...

'', September 4, 2010. she died in 2006. His son, Macgregor Knox, is a prominent historian of 20th century Europe. Bored with his first Army assignment with an anti-aircraft battery in England, Knox volunteered for work with the Office of Strategic Services as he spoke French and some German. The OSS assigned him to the

Jedburgh Jedburgh (; gd, Deadard; sco, Jeddart or ) is a town and former royal burgh in the Scottish Borders and the traditional county town of the historic county of Roxburghshire, the name of which was randomly chosen for Operation Jedburgh in s ...

program, and he parachuted into

Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period ...

on July 7, 1944 with team GILES. His team evaded German capture while working with the area resistance, arranging clandestine air parachute drops of weapons, and, when the regulars arrived, did liaison work between the US forces and the

French resistance The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...

in order to sweep the German Army out of Brittany. In the Spring of 1945, he deployed to Italy with an OSS team to work with the

Italian Partisans The Italian resistance movement (the ''Resistenza italiana'' and ''la Resistenza'') is an umbrella term for the Italian resistance groups who fought the occupying forces of Nazi Germany and the fascist collaborationists of the Italian Social ...

scouting for Allied forces. It was here, during a firefight, where he was pinned down in a monastery filled with books that he resolved to take up his studies in the classics should he survive the war.Benjamin F. Jones
"Looking for Bernard Knox: Warrior, Ancient and Modern"
in ''War, Literature & the Arts'' 15:323 (2003). He did so and received an M.A. from Harvard, and a PhD from

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

.1976-77: Bernard Knox biography at Previous Winners of the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

website. In the army, he achieved the rank of captain. Knox taught at Yale until 1961, when he was appointed the first director of Harvard's Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, D.C. After fulfilling a previous commitment to spend a year as Sather Lecturer at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, Knox served as director of the Center from 1962 until his retirement in 1985. He continued to write prolifically. Knox is known for his efforts to make classics more accessible to the public."5 Arts Awards Announced"
''The New York Times'', September 2, 1990. In 1959 his translations of '' Oedipus Rex'' were used to produce a series of television films for

Encyclopædia Britannica The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various t ...

and the Massachusetts Council for the Humanities, featuring the cast of the Canadian Stratford Shakespeare Festival. He taught the poet

Robert Fagles Robert Fagles (; September 11, 1933 – March 26, 2008) was an American professor, poet, and academic, best known for his many translations of ancient Greek and Roman classics, especially his acclaimed translations of the epic poems of Homer. ...

at Yale, and became Fagles's lifelong friend and the author of the introductions and notes for Fagles's translations of

Sophocles Sophocles (; grc, Σοφοκλῆς, , Sophoklễs; 497/6 – winter 406/5 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. is one of three ancient Greek tragedians, at least one of whose plays has survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or c ...

's three Theban plays,

Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...

's ''

Iliad The ''Iliad'' (; grc, Ἰλιάς, Iliás, ; "a poem about Ilium") is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the '' Odys ...

'' and ''

Odyssey The ''Odyssey'' (; grc, Ὀδύσσεια, Odýsseia, ) is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Iliad'', th ...

'', and

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: th ...

's ''

Aeneid The ''Aeneid'' ( ; la, Aenē̆is or ) is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who fled the fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of th ...

''. Reviewing the Fagles ''Iliad'' in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', classicist

Oliver Taplin Oliver Taplin, FBA (born 2 August 1943) is a retired British academic and classicist. He was a fellow of Magdalen College and Professor of Classical Languages and Literature at the University of Oxford. He holds a DPhil from Oxford University. Ac ...

described Knox's 60-page introduction as "His Master's Voice, taking the best of contemporary scholarship and giving it special point and vividness, as only Mr. Knox can." His combat experiences in World War II subtly inform these introductions. Knox was the editor of ''The Norton Book of Classical Literature''

Christopher Lehmann-Haupt Christopher Lehmann-Haupt (June 14, 1934 – November 7, 2018) was an American journalist, editor of the ''New York Times Book Review'', critic, and novelist, based in New York City. He served as senior Daily Book Reviewer from 1969 to 1995. Bi ...

"Books of The Times; Putting In a Word for Homer, Herodotus, Plato, Etc."
''The New York Times'', April 29, 1993. and also wrote extensively for ''

The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...

''. Knox received the 1977

George Jean Nathan George Jean Nathan (February 14, 1882 – April 8, 1958) was an American drama critic and magazine editor. He worked closely with H. L. Mencken, bringing the literary magazine ''The Smart Set'' to prominence as an editor, and co-founding and ...

Award for Dramatic Criticism for one of his ''New York Review'' pieces, a review of

Andrei Şerban Andrei Șerban (born June 21, 1943) is a Romanian-American theater director. A major name in twentieth-century theater, he is renowned for his innovative and iconoclastic interpretations and stagings. In 1992 he became Professor of Theater at the ...

's controversial

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 milli ...

production of ''

Agamemnon In Greek mythology, Agamemnon (; grc-gre, Ἀγαμέμνων ''Agamémnōn'') was a king of Mycenae who commanded the Greeks during the Trojan War. He was the son, or grandson, of King Atreus and Queen Aerope, the brother of Menelaus, the ...

''; the award committee described Knox's work as "a brilliant review of a major theatrical event" in which Knox "recognized that the director was attempting to solve the central problem of this play by finding a new way to express long passages of lyric language that have lost their immediacy for modern audiences." In 1990 he received the first

PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay The PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay is awarded by the PEN America (formerly PEN American Center) to an author for a book of original collected essays. The award was founded by PEN Member and author Barbaralee Diamonstein a ...

for his book ''Essays Ancient and Modern''. Knox is also known for his role in the controversy over similarities between

Stephen Spender Sir Stephen Harold Spender (28 February 1909 – 16 July 1995) was an English poet, novelist and essayist whose work concentrated on themes of social injustice and the class struggle. He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry by th ...

's ''World Within World'' and

David Leavitt David Leavitt (; born June 23, 1961) is an American novelist, short story writer, and biographer. Biography Leavitt was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Harold and Gloria Leavitt. Harold was a professor who taught at Stanford University and G ...

's ''While England Sleeps'': it was Knox, reviewing Leavitt's book for ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', who first pointed out its similarities to Spender's older memoir (which Knox had reviewed in 1951). This ultimately led to Spender suing Leavitt and forcing the withdrawal and revision of Leavitt's book. The

awarded Knox the

Charles Frankel Prize The National Humanities Medal is an American award that annually recognizes several individuals, groups, or institutions for work that has "deepened the nation's understanding of the humanities, broadened our citizens' engagement with the human ...

in 1990,Charles Frankel Prize
at NEH website (retrieved May 25, 2009). and in 1992 it selected Knox for the

, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the

.Jefferson Lecturers
at NEH Website (retrieved May 25, 2009). Knox's lecture, which he gave the intentionally "provocative" title "The Oldest Dead White European Males", became the basis for Knox's book of the same name, in which Knox defended the continuing relevance of classical Greek culture to modern society. He died of heart failure on July 22, 2010. He was buried with honors at Arlington National Cemetery.

Awards and honors

*1945: Two

Bronze Star The Bronze Star Medal (BSM) is a United States Armed Forces decoration awarded to members of the United States Armed Forces for either heroic achievement, heroic service, meritorious achievement, or meritorious service in a combat zone. Wh ...

s and the Croix de Guerre *1956: Guggenheim Fellowship *1977: George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism, "for his review of Andrei Serban’s production of Agamemnon at

, published in the

" *1977: Elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

*1985: Elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

*1990:

, from the

*1990:

, for ''Essays Ancient and Modern'' *1992: Selected for the

by the National Endowment for the Humanities *2004: The Thomas Jefferson Medal, awarded by the

Publications

Books: *Bernard Knox,

Cleanth Brooks Cleanth Brooks ( ; October 16, 1906 – May 10, 1994) was an American literary critic and professor. He is best known for his contributions to New Criticism in the mid-20th century and for revolutionizing the teaching of poetry in American higher ...

, Maynard Mack, ''Tragic Themes in Western Literature: Seven Essays by Bernard Knox and Others'' (Yale University Press, 1955), . *Bernard Knox, ''Oedipus at Thebes'' (Yale University Press, 1957), reissued as ''Oedipus at Thebes: Sophocles' Tragic Hero and His Time'' (Yale University Press, 1998), . *Bernard Knox, ''The heroic temper: studies in Sophoclean tragedy'' (University of California Press, 1964), . *Bernard Knox, ''Word and Action: Essays on the Ancient Theater'' (1979) (reprint, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986), *Bernard Knox, ''Essays Ancient and Modern'' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989), . *Bernard Knox, editor, ''The Norton Book of Classical Literature'' (Norton, 1993), . *Bernard Knox, ''The Oldest Dead White European Males and Other Reflections on the Classics'' (1993) (reprint, W. W. Norton & Company, 1994), . *Bernard Knox, ''Backing Into the Future: The Classical Tradition and Its Renewal'' (W.W. Norton, 1994), . Articles and Book Chapters:
''The Continuity of Greek Culture'', Perspectives on Culture and Society, Volume 1 (1988), pages 149-164
*''Premature Anti-Fascist'', The Antioch Review, Volume 57, Number 2, Essays, Personal & Political, Spring 1999, pp. 133–149.

Selected introductions

*Sophocles, tr. Robert Fagles, notes by Bernard Knox, ''The three Theban plays'' (Viking Press, 1982), . *Homer, tr. Robert Fagles, intro. Bernard Knox, ''The Iliad'' (Penguin Classics, 1991), . *Homer, tr. Robert Fagles, intro. Bernard Knox, ''The Odyssey'' (Penguin Classics, 1997), . *Virgil, tr. Robert Fagles, intro. Bernard Knox, ''The Aeneid'' (Viking, 2006), . *Moses I. Finley, intro. Bernard Knox, ''The World of Odysseus'' (New York Review of Books, 2002), .

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Knox, Bernard 1914 births 2010 deaths English classical scholars Writers from Bradford Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Yale University alumni Classical scholars of Harvard University British people of the Spanish Civil War English emigrants to the United States National Humanities Medal recipients International Brigades personnel United States Army officers Classical scholars of Yale University Scholars of ancient Greek literature PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award winners Homeric scholars Harvard University alumni Members of the American Philosophical Society