Cynthia Griffin Wolff (née Griffin; born August 20, 1936) is an American literary historian and editor known for her biographies of

Edith Wharton Edith Wharton (; born Edith Newbold Jones; January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937) was an American novelist, short story writer, and interior designer. Wharton drew upon her insider's knowledge of the upper-class New York "aristocracy" to portray ...

and

Emily Dickinson Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. Little-known during her life, she has since been regarded as one of the most important figures in American poetry. Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massach ...

. She has served as Class of 1922 Professor of Humanities at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

Biography

Cynthia Griffin Wolff was born on August 20, 1936, in

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

, Missouri, the daughter of

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

executive James T. Griffin. She studied at

Hathaway Brown School Hathaway Brown, commonly referred to as HB, is an all-girls private school located in Shaker Heights, Ohio. The school serves pre-kindergarten through 12th grade students. Hathaway Brown is a member of the National Coalition of Girls' Schools, ...

and

Radcliffe College Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and functioned as the female coordinate institution for the all-male Harvard College. Considered founded in 1879, it was one of the Seven Sisters colleges and he ...

(where she obtained a BA in 1958). Wolff later moved to

Harvard University 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 ...

, where, in addition to studying at

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...

, she obtained a PhD in English; her dissertation was titled ''The Puritan Sources of Richardson's Psychological Realism''. Wolff worked as an assistant professor at

Manhattanville College Manhattanville College is a private university in Purchase, New York. Founded in 1841 at 412 Houston Street in lower Manhattan, it was initially known as Academy of the Sacred Heart, then after 1847 as Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart ...

and later at

University of Massachusetts, Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, i ...

, before being promoted by the latter to professor in 1976. While working at UM Amherst, she published two books: ''Samuel Richardson'' (1972) and '' A Feast of Words: The Triumph of Edith Wharton'' (1977). In 1980, Wolff moved to the

, where she became Class of 1922 Professor of Humanities in 1985. In 1984, Wolff received an

American Council of Learned Societies American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

Grant-In-Aid for a project called "The life of Emily Dickinson". In 1986, Wolff published ''

'', a biography of Emily Dickinson. In 1997, she was awarded a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

. Wolff retired in 2003. Wolff has also edited at least four books: ''Other Lives'' (1973), ''Classic American Women Writers'' (1980), ''The House of Mirth'' (1985), and ''Four Stories by American Women'' (1990). Wolff was married to political philosopher

Robert Paul Wolff Robert Paul Wolff (born December 27, 1933) is an American political philosopher and professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Wolff has written widely on topics in political philosophy such as Marxism, tolerance (against ...

from 1962 until their divorce in 1986; she married Nicholas J. White in 1988. She is the mother of chess grandmaster

Patrick Wolff Patrick Gideon Wolff (born February 15, 1968) is an American chess Grandmaster. He is the son of philosopher Robert Paul Wolff and brother of law professor Tobias Barrington Wolff. Wolff won the United States Chess Championship in 1992 and 1995 ...

and legal scholar and LGBT activist

Tobias Barrington Wolff Tobias Barrington Wolff (born 1970) is a professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School where he teaches classes on sexuality and the law, same sex marriage and human rights. He is known for his legal advocacy on same sex marriage and ...

Bibliography

*''Samuel Richardson and the Eighteenth-Century Puritan Character'' (1972) *'' A Feast of Words: The Triumph of Edith Wharton'' (1977) *''

'' (1986)

As editor

*''Other Lives'' (1973) *''Classic American Women Writers'' (1980) *''The House of Mirth'' (1985, by

) *''Four Stories by American Women'' (1990)

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolff, Cynthia Griffin 1936 births Living people American biographers American women biographers American academics of English literature American literary historians American literary editors American women editors 20th-century American biographers 20th-century American women writers Writers from St. Louis Manhattanville College faculty University of Massachusetts Amherst faculty Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty Radcliffe College alumni Harvard University alumni