John Vincent Fleming (born May 20, 1936) is an American literary scholar and the Louis W. Fairchild '24 Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Emeritus, at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

Career

Fleming was born on May 26, 1936 and graduated from The University of the South in 1958. After studying at

Jesus College, Oxford Jesus College (in full: Jesus College in the University of Oxford of Queen Elizabeth's Foundation) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is in the centre of the city, on a site between Turl Street, Ship S ...

, as a Rhodes Scholar, Fleming earned his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

in medieval literature from

in 1963 after completing a doctoral dissertation, titled "The

Roman de la Rose ''Le Roman de la Rose'' (''The Romance of the Rose'') is a medieval poem written in Old French and presented as an allegorical dream vision. As poetry, ''The Romance of the Rose'' is a notable instance of courtly literature, purporting to prov ...

and its manuscript illustrations", under the supervision of D. W. Robertson Jr. He spent two years as an instructor in English at the

University of Wisconsin–Madison 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 Stat ...

before returning to Princeton as an assistant professor of English in 1965. Beginning in 1978 he took up a joint appointment in the Department of Comparative Literature. His fields of expertise included medieval English, French, and Latin literatures, and the history and culture of the Franciscan Order in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

. He is perhaps best known in Princeton for his popular and erudite lecture course on Geoffrey Chaucer. From 1995 to 2006, he authored a weekly column in ''

The Daily Princetonian ''The Daily Princetonian'', originally known as ''The Princetonian'' and nicknamed the Prince, is the independent daily student newspaper of Princeton University. Founded on June 14, 1876 as ''The'' ''Princetonian'', it changed its name to ''T ...

'', titled "Gladly Lerne, Gladly Teche" (a reference to

Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for '' The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He w ...

's ''

Canterbury Tales ''The Canterbury Tales'' ( enm, Tales of Caunterbury) is a collection of twenty-four stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. It is widely regarded as Chaucer's ''magnum opus ...

''). He has revived his column under its same name as a blog attached to his website, www.johnvfleming.com. The blog has published a weekly essay, uninterrupted, for more than ten years. He served for several years as a Commissioner of Higher Education of

Middle States The Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools (Middle States Association or MSA) was a voluntary, peer-based, non-profit association that performed peer evaluation and regional accreditation of public and private schools in the Mid-Atla ...

. He was active in numerous learned societies, including the

Medieval Academy of America The Medieval Academy of America (MAA; spelled Mediaeval until c. 1980) is the largest organization in the United States promoting the field of medieval studies. It was founded in 1925 and is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The academy publishes ...

, which he served as its president. Fleming is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the American Philosophical Society. At Princeton, he was the dissertation director of renowned scholars of medieval literature

Carolyn Dinshaw Carolyn Dinshaw is an American academic and author, who has specialised in issues of gender and sexuality in the medieval context. Education and career Dinshaw was born to an Indian father, Dudley Dinshaw a Parsi from Lucknow and an American mothe ...

(New York University) and Steven Justice (University of California, Berkeley). He is married to Joan E. Fleming, a retired priest in the

Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey The Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey forms part of Province II of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. It is made up of the southern and central New Jersey counties of Union, Middlesex, Somerset, Hunterdon, Mercer, Monmouth ...

. They are the parents of Richard Arthur Fleming (b. 1964), a sound-recording engineer, artist, and travel writer;

Katherine Elizabeth Fleming Katherine Elizabeth Fleming is President and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust and the Alexander S. Onassis Professor of Hellenic Culture and Civilization in the Department of History at New York University (NYU) as well as Provost Emerita of the ...

(b. 1966), a prize-winning historian and university administrator, and current President and CEO of the Getty Foundation; and Luke Owles Fleming (b. 1978), a linguistic anthropologist. While at Princeton, his wit was widely appreciated and often recorded in a sporadic column titled "Professorial Chrestomathy," including such remarks from his lectures as "As of this morning, you have heard all my jokes and seen all my shirts." In 2006, after 40 years at Princeton, he moved to emeritus status. Following his retirement, he was honored with two

festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

volumes prepared by former students and other colleagues. The first, ''Defenders and Critics of Franciscan Life: Essays in Honor of John V. Fleming'', ed. Michael F. Cusato and Guy Geltner (

Brill Brill may refer to: Places * Brielle (sometimes "Den Briel"), a town in the western Netherlands * Brill, Buckinghamshire, a village in England * Brill, Cornwall, a small village to the west of Constantine, Cornwall, UK * Brill, Wisconsin, an un ...

: 2009), reflects his work in Franciscan Studies. The second, ''Sacred and Profane in Chaucer and Late Medieval Literature: Essays in Honour of John V. Fleming'', ed. Robert Epstein and William Robins (Toronto: 2010), reflects his contributions to the study of medieval English vernacular literature. He is an elected member of the Guild of Scholars of The Episcopal Church. In 2021 Princeton University awarded him the degree of Doctor of Letters, honoris causa. In retirement Fleming has expanded his field of scholarly publication beyond medieval subjects. His first trade book, a study of classic anti-Communist literature entitled ''The Anti-Communist Manifestos'' was published in New York by W. W. Norton in August, 2009. In 2010 it was awarded the annual book prize of the New Jersey Council for the Humanities. This was followed by ''The Dark Side of the Enlightenment'' from the same publisher in 2013. He returned to formal scholarly publication in 2017 with a monograph on the Portuguese Renaissance poet Luis de Camões, and he continues to publish occasional commissioned essays and book reviews.

Books

*''1492: An Ongoing Voyage'' (with Ida Altman and John Hebert) (1992) *''Classical Imitation and Interpretation in Chaucer's

Troilus Troilus ( or ; grc, Τρωΐλος, Troïlos; la, Troilus) is a legendary character associated with the story of the Trojan War. The first surviving reference to him is in Homer's ''Iliad,'' composed in the late 8th century BCE. In Greek myth ...

'' (1990)
''Reason and the Lover''
(1984) *''From Bonaventure to Bellini: An Essay in Franciscan Exegesis'' (1982) *''An Introduction to the Franciscan Literature of the Middle Ages'' (1977) *''Two Poems Attributed to

Joachim of Fiore Joachim of Fiore, also known as Joachim of Flora and in Italian Gioacchino da Fiore (c. 1135 – 30 March 1202), was an Italian Christian theologian, Catholic abbot, and the founder of the monastic order of San Giovanni in Fiore. According to th ...

'' (with Marjorie Reeves), Princeton NJ: The Pilgrim Press, 1978 *''The

: A Study in Allegory and Iconography'' (1969) *''The Anti-Communist Manifestos'' (2009) *''The Dark Side of the Enlightenment'' (2013) *''Luis de Camões: The Poet as Scriptural Exegete'' (2017)

References

External links

*http://www.johnvfleming.com (personal web site)
"Princeton Journeys: Chaucer's Canterbury with John Fleming" (Princeton University Alumni Association)"Fleming honors 'Class of Destiny' at Baccalaureate" (News@Princeton, June 3, 2007)Full text of the 2007 Baccalaureate Address, delivered by Professor Fleming at the Princeton University Chapel on June 3, 2007"Dr John Fleming talks about the Middle Ages and the modern world, part 1" (Fausta's blog, March 14, 2007)Professor Fleming's bio at the P.U. English Department website
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20061028015804/http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2006/05/15/opinion/15623.shtml "Professor Fleming's last column" in ''The Daily Princetonian'' (May 15, 2006)br>"Four faculty members recognized for their outstanding teaching" (''Princeton Weekly Bulletin;'' June 14, 2004)Fleming receives the Alumni Council Award for Service to Princeton (Reunions 2004)"Fleming prepares for yet another role: Emeritus" (''Princeton Weekly Bulletin;'' May 17, 2004)
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fleming, John V. Alumni of Jesus College, Oxford American academics of English literature American Rhodes Scholars Princeton University alumni Princeton University faculty Sewanee: The University of the South alumni Living people Chaucer scholars American medievalists Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America Members of the American Philosophical Society 1936 births