Brooks Otis (June 10, 1908 – July 26, 1977) was an American scholar of Classical languages and literature. Born in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, he graduated from

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1929, took the M.A. in 1930, and received the Ph.D. in 1935. Otis taught at Hobart College from 1935 to 1957, then at

American University of Beirut The American University of Beirut (AUB) ( ar, الجامعة الأميركية في بيروت) is a private, non-sectarian, and independent university chartered in New York with its campus in Beirut, Lebanon. AUB is governed by a private, aut ...

for one year before accepting a position at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

as Professor of Classics. In 1970 he moved to the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

where he followed T. Robert S. Broughton as

George L. Paddison George Lucas Paddison (August 9, 1883 – October 17, 1954) was an American assistant professor, lawyer, and sales supervisor. Biography Paddison was born in Burgaw, North Carolina on August 9, 1883. He studied chemistry at the University of Nor ...

Professor of Latin. While at Stanford Otis was one of the founders of the

Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies The Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome (ICCS) is an overseas study center located in Rome, Italy for undergraduate students in fields related to Classical Studies. It was first established in 1965 by ten American colleges and u ...

in Rome, Italy, in 1965. He was a member of the

Guild of Scholars of The Episcopal Church The Guild of Scholars of the Episcopal Church is a society of lay Episcopal academics, teachers, artists and professional practitioners which for many years met annually at General Theological Seminary in New York in November of each year. Sinc ...

. Otis was known for some of the most concise and penetrating critical essays written on classical literature. His first book, published at the age of 55, was ''Virgil: A Study in Civilized Poetry'' (1963), which was immediately recognized as a classic. Ward W. Briggs, Jr., Foreword to Brooks Otis, ''Virgil: A Study in Civilized Poetry''. University of Oklahoma Press, 1995, pp. vii - xiii. He also wrote ''Ovid as an Epic Poet'' (1966) and the posthumous ''Cosmos and Tragedy: An Essay on the Meaning of Aeschylus'' (1981), edited with notes and a preface by

E. Christian Kopff E. Christian Kopff (born 22 November 1946, Brooklyn, New York) is Associate Professor of Classics and Associate Director of the Honors Program at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he has taught since 1973. He is a Fellow of the American A ...

), which was part of a long manuscript left unfinished at his death, entitled "The Transcendence of Tragedy".

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* * 1908 births 1977 deaths American classical scholars Harvard University alumni Scholars of Latin literature Classical scholars of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Linguists from the United States {{US-linguist-stub