Patricia Ann Meyer Spacks (born 1929) is an American literary scholar. She is the Edgar F. Shannon Professor Emerita at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...

and former President of 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 ...

and of the

Modern Language Association The Modern Language Association of America, often referred to as the Modern Language Association (MLA), is widely considered the principal professional association in the United States for scholars of language and literature. The MLA aims to "str ...

. She specializes in eighteenth-century English Literature and also writes cultural criticism on varied subjects such as

boredom In conventional usage, boredom, , or tedium is an emotion characterized by Interest (emotion), uninterest in one's surrounding, often caused by a lack of distractions or occupations. Although, "There is no universally accepted definition of bo ...

gossip Gossip is idle talk or rumor, especially about the personal or private affairs of others; the act is also known as dishing or tattling. Etymology The word is from Old English ''godsibb'', from ''god (word), god'' and ''sibb'', the term for the ...

, and

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

. "With remarkable breadth of reference, Spacks has written more extensively than any other feminist critic on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century English narrative".

Life

Spacks was born to Norman and Lillian Talcott Meyer in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, California. She received a B.A. from

Rollins College Rollins College is a Liberal arts college, private liberal arts college in Winter Park, Florida. It was founded in November 1885 and has about 30 undergraduate majors and several master's programs. Florida's fourth oldest post-secondary institut ...

in 1949, an M.A. from

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 ...

and a Ph.D. from the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...

in 1955. From 1955 to 1978 she was married to poet

Barry Spacks Barry Bernard Spacks (February 21, 1931 – January 28, 2014), was a prize-winning poet, novelist and first poet laureate of Santa Barbara, California. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Spacks received his B.A. (honors) from the Universit ...

. She has chaired English departments at

Wellesley College Wellesley College is a Private university, private Women's colleges in the United States, historically women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henr ...

, and the University of Virginia. In 1996, Spacks 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 ...

. She was the first Humanities Scholar-in-Residence at the

before becoming the Academy's president from 2001 to 2006. Spacks has earned the

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 ...

, a fellowship from the

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

, and an Honorary Doctorate from Rollins College. She has been the chair of the board of directors of 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 ...

and a trustee of the

National Humanities Center The National Humanities Center (NHC) is an independent institute for advanced study in the humanities located in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, United States. The NHC operates as a privately incorporated nonprofit and is not part of any uni ...

Selected works

* ''Imagining a Self: Autobiography and Novel in Eighteenth-Century England'' (1976) * ''The Adolescent Idea: Myths of Youth and the Adult Imagination'' (1981) * ''Gossip'' (1985) * ''Desire and Truth: Functions of Plot in Eighteenth-Century English Novels'' (1990) * ''Boredom: The Literary History of a State of Mind'' (1995) * ''Privacy: Concealing the Eighteenth-Century Self'' (2003) * ''Novel Beginnings: Experiments in Eighteenth-Century English Fiction'' (2006) * ''On Rereading'' (2011)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spacks, Patricia Meyer Living people 1929 births University of Virginia faculty Rollins College alumni Yale University alumni University of California alumni Members of the American Philosophical Society Presidents of the Modern Language Association