Harris Francis Fletcher (23 October 1892 – July 1979) was an American academic, professor of English at the University of Illinois for 36 years from 1926 to 1962, an author, and a leading authority on the work of

John Milton John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet and intellectual. His 1667 epic poem '' Paradise Lost'', written in blank verse and including over ten chapters, was written in a time of immense religious flux and political ...

Early life

He was born in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Fletcher received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1925.

Career

Fletcher was Professor of English at the University of Illinois from 1926 to 1962, and Associate Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences from 1931 to 1938. Fletcher played a major role in the establishment of the university's Rare Book and Special Collections Library, which now include the largest collection of the works of the poet John Milton in the United States. He died in Champaign, Illinois in 1979.

Selected publications

* John Milton's Complete Poetical Works (1943) * Milton's Semitic studies and some manifestations of them in his poetry * Milton's rabbinical readings * The use of the Bible in Milton's prose * The intellectual Development of John Milton (two volumes, 1956, 1961) * Contributions to a Milton bibliography, 1800–1930, being a list of addenda to Stevens's Reference guide to Milton

Personal life

On July 8, 1915, he married Mary Ellen Davis in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Mary Ellen Davis died of influenza in the flu pandemic October 20, 1918. On 22 June 1922, he married Dorothy Bacon in Coldwater, Michigan.

References

External links

Harris F. Fletcher Papers, University of Illinois Archives
1892 births 1979 deaths People from Ypsilanti, Michigan People from Champaign, Illinois University of Michigan alumni University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty 20th-century American non-fiction writers {{US-English-academic-bio-stub