Lyall H. Powers (July 13, 1924 – May 15, 2018) was a professor of English at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, where he taught since 1958. He was granted

emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

status by the University's Regents during their October 1992 meeting. Powers wrote widely on modern American authors, and with

Leon Edel Joseph Leon Edel (9 September 1907 – 5 September 1997) was an American/Canadian literary critic and biographer. He was the elder brother of North American philosopher Abraham Edel. The ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' calls Edel "the foremo ...

, edited the complete notebooks of

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

. One of his most widely circulated books is ''Alien Heart'' (University of Manitoba Press, 2005), a biography of Canadian author

Margaret Laurence Jean Margaret Laurence (née Wemyss; July 18, 1926 – January 5, 1987) was a Canadian novelist and short story writer, and is one of the major figures in Canadian literature. She was also a founder of the Writers' Trust of Canada, a non-pr ...

. A lifelong friend of Laurence, Powers met her when they were students together in the 1940s. The book is described as "the first full-length biography of Margaret Laurence that combines personal knowledge and insights about Laurence with a study of her work". Powers' archives are held at the

University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections The University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections is a department of the University of Manitoba Libraries which holds historical records related to and created by the University of Manitoba. It is also a collector of private records of indi ...

Notes

1924 births American academics of English literature Writers from Michigan University of Michigan faculty 2018 deaths {{US-English-academic-bio-stub