Otis Edward Fellows (1909 – May 15, 1993) was an American scholar of 18th-century French literature. He taught in the humanities for almost forty years at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. Born in Hanover, Connecticut, Fellows died on May 15, 1993, in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

, at the age of 84, but lived for most of his scholarly career in

Morningside Heights Morningside Heights is a neighborhood on the West Side of Upper Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Morningside Drive to the east, 125th Street to the north, 110th Street to the south, and Riverside Drive to the west. Morningside ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. He earned his Ph.D. in Romance languages in 1936 at

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

. Fellows began teaching at Columbia University in 1939, attaining the rank of professor in 1958. From 1970 to 1977 held an endowed chair, the Avalon Foundation Professorship.

Work

Fellows's work on

Denis Diderot Denis Diderot (; ; 5 October 171331 July 1784) was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer, best known for serving as co-founder, chief editor, and contributor to the ''Encyclopédie'' along with Jean le Rond d'Alembert. He was a promine ...

was considered authoritative. He founded ''Diderot Studies'', published in

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

, in 1949, and was its editor for many years. ''Diderot'', a biography and appreciative study of the editor of the French '' Encyclopédie'', was published in 1977. Fellows co-edited a widely used anthology of 18th-century French literature entitled ''The Age of Enlightenment'' with Norman L. Torrey, his colleague at Columbia. Fellows also wrote ''From Voltaire to "La Nouvelle Critique": Problems and Personalities'' (1970) and co-authored a biography of Buffon with Stephen Milliken. In 1953 he edited a collection of detective stories by

Georges Simenon Georges Joseph Christian Simenon (; 13 February 1903 – 4 September 1989) was a Belgian writer. He published nearly 500 novels and numerous short works, and was the creator of the fictional detective Jules Maigret. Early life and education ...

Recognition

Fellows was a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Arts The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...

. He was the recipient of 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 ...

in 1959. He was awarded the Médaille de Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques by the French government in 1959 for his work as an American intelligence officer during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, and for his scholarship.

References

External links

Finding aid to Otis Fellows papers at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fellows, Otis 1909 births 1993 deaths American male non-fiction writers American historians of philosophy United States Army personnel of World War II World War II espionage United States Army officers People from Sprague, Connecticut 20th-century American male writers Historians from Connecticut