Henri Maurice Peyre (21 February 1901 – 9 December 1988) was a French-born American

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

, literary scholar and

Sterling Professor Sterling Professor, the highest academic rank at Yale University, is awarded to a Academic tenure in North America, tenured faculty member considered the best in their field. It is akin to the rank of distinguished professor at other universities. ...

of French Emeritus at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

. Peyre graduated from the

École Normale Superieure École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * Éco ...

and the Sorbonne and received his PhD from the Universite de Paris. In 1925 he started teaching at

Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh language, Welsh: ) is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as a ...

, ten miles west of Philadelphia. From 1933 to 1938 he was professor of French literature at the Egyptian University in Cairo, and from 1938 to 1969 he was Sterling Professor of French at Yale University. Upon mandatory retirement at age 68 from Yale in 1969 to his retirement in 1980, he was Distinguished Professor at the City University of New York Graduate Center. In 1930 Peyre was awarded a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

. He was elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

in 1953. In 1954 he received a grant from the

American Council of Learned Societies The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is a private, nonprofit federation of 75 scholarly organizations in the humanities and related social sciences founded in 1919. It is best known for its fellowship competitions which provide a ra ...

to do research for his next book. He was elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

in 1957 and, in 1963, he was a member of the National Commission on the Humanities. In France he was made officer of the

Légion d'Honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

Publications

Peyre wrote about 30 books about

classicism Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for a classical period, classical antiquity in the Western tradition, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. In its purest form, classicism is an aesthe ...

, modern literature, and

higher education Tertiary education (higher education, or post-secondary education) is the educational level following the completion of secondary education. The World Bank defines tertiary education as including universities, colleges, and vocational schools ...

. A selection: * 1932. ''Louis Ménard'' * 1955. ''The contemporary French novel'' * 1962. ''Essays on English and American literature'' With

Leo Spitzer Leo Spitzer (; 7 February 1887 – 16 September 1960) was an Austrian Romanist and Hispanist, philologist, and an influential and prolific literary critic. He was known for his emphasis on stylistics. Along with Erich Auerbach, Spitzer is wide ...

, and A. Hatcher. * 1963. ''Literature and sincerity'' * 1967.
French Novelists of Today.
' New York: Oxford UP, * 1968. ''Jean-Paul Sartre'' * 2005. ''Henri Peyre: His Life in Letters''. With John W. Kneller and Mario Maurin eds. Articles, a selection * 1953. "Exile by

Saint-John Perse Alexis Leger (; 31 May 1887 – 20 September 1975), better known by his pseudonym Saint-John Perse (; also Saint-Leger Leger), was a French poet, writer and diplomat, awarded the 1960 Nobel Prize in Literature "for the soaring flight and the ev ...

", Shenandoah, Lexington, vol. V, Winter 1953 * 1964.
André Malraux and the Arts
" The Baltimore Museum of Art: Baltimore, Maryland, 1964

References

External links

*
Henri Peyre
– Obituary, 1988 {{DEFAULTSORT:Peyre, Henri 1901 births 1988 deaths University of Paris alumni Bryn Mawr College faculty Yale University faculty Yale Sterling Professors 20th-century American linguists French emigrants to the United States Presidents of the Modern Language Association Members of the American Philosophical Society

Publications

See also

References

External links