Bernard Knox (1914–2010)
Author of The Norton Book of Classical Literature
About the Author
Bernard Knox was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire on November 24, 1914. After studying classics at St. John's College, Cambridge, he fought with the Republican forces in the Spanish Civil War. In 1939, he married Betty Baur and began teaching Latin at a private school in Greenwich, Connecticut. show more During World War II, he served in the United States Army where he parachuted into France to work with the resistance and went on to join the partisans in Italy. He received a Bronze Star and the Croix de Guerre for his service. He received a doctorate from Yale University in 1948. He also taught at Yale University, becoming a full professor in 1959, and became the founding director of Harvard's Center for Hellenic Studies, a position he held until 1985. He was an authority on the works of Sophocles and his first book was Oedipus at Thebes: Sophocles' Tragic Hero and His Time (1957). He also edited the anthology The Norton Book of Classical Literature (1993). His essay appeared in numerous publications including The Atlantic Monthly, The New Republic and The New York Review of Books. They were also collected in numerous books including The Heroic Temper: Studies in Sophoclean Tragedy (1964), Word and Action: Essays on the Ancient Theater (1980), and The Oldest Dead White European Males and Other Reflections on the Classics (1993). He received numerous honorary degrees and distinctions during his lifetime including the George Jean Nathan Award for dramatic criticism in 1977; the Charles Frankel Prize of the National Endowment of the Humanities in 1990; and the Jefferson Medal of the Philosophical Society of America in 2004. He died of a heart attack on July 22, 2010 at the age of 95. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Works by Bernard Knox
The Cambridge History of Classical Literature: Volume 1, Greek Literature, Part 2, Greek Drama (1989) — Editor — 42 copies
The Cambridge History of Classical Literature: Volume 1, Greek Literature, Part 1, Early Greek Poetry (1989) — Editor — 35 copies
The Cambridge History of Classical Literature: Volume 1, Greek Literature, Part 4: The Hellenistic Period and the… (1989) — Editor — 21 copies
The Cambridge History of Classical Literature: Volume 1, Greek Literature, Part 3, Philosophy, History and Oratory (1989) — Editor; Editor — 17 copies
The Ajax of Sophocles 1 copy
Classical Literature 1 copy
Associated Works
The Black Hunter: Forms of Thought and Forms of Society in the Greek World (1981) — Foreword, some editions — 85 copies
Intelligence Activities in Ancient Rome: Trust in the Gods, but Verify (2005) — Foreword, some editions — 24 copies
New Perspectives in Early Greek Art (Studies in the History of Art) (1991) — Contributor — 10 copies
Yale classical studies. Volume 13 — Contributor — 2 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Knox, Bernard
- Legal name
- Knox, Bernard MacGregor Walker
- Birthdate
- 1914-11-24
- Date of death
- 2010-07-22
- Burial location
- Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia, USA
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
UK (birth) - Birthplace
- Bradford, Yorkshire, England, UK
- Place of death
- Bethesda, Maryland, USA
- Cause of death
- heart failure
- Places of residence
- Bradford, Yorkshire, England, UK (birth)
London, England, UK
Washington, D.C., USA
Bethesda, Maryland, USA - Education
- Battersea Grammar School, London, UK
St John's College, Cambridge University (BA|1936)
Yale University (MA|Ph.D|1948) - Occupations
- professor
classicist
translator - Relationships
- VanOrden, Bianca (wife)
Knox, MacGregor (son) - Organizations
- Harvard University Center for Hellenic Studies
Yale University
United States Army (WWII)
International Brigades - Awards and honors
- Charles Frankel Prize (1990)
American Academy of Arts & Sciences (1977)
American Philosophical Society (1985)
Thomas Jefferson Medal (2004)
Jefferson Lecture (1992)
PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay (1990) (show all 10)
American Academy of Arts and Letters Academy Award (1967)
George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism (1977)
Croix de Guerre (1945)
Bronze Star (2x, 1945) - Short biography
- Knox fought with the XI th. International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War from 1937 to 1938. He was badly wounded. In World War II he was, as a soldier of the US Army, involved in covert US / British / French operations in France and Northern Italy.
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Bernard Knox dead at 95 in Ancient History (August 2010)
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Statistics
- Works
- 22
- Also by
- 19
- Members
- 1,337
- Popularity
- #19,259
- Rating
- 4.0
- Reviews
- 7
- ISBNs
- 26
- Languages
- 3
- Favorited
- 1
The real jewel in this book is the final essay, "The Continuity of Greek Culture." Insightful and delightful - the pages melted by and it was over before I was ready.… (more)