Bernard Knox (1914–2010)

Author of The Norton Book of Classical Literature

22+ Works 1,337 Members 7 Reviews 1 Favorited

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

Includes the names: Walker Knox, B.M.W. Knox, B.M.W. Knox, Knox Bernard, Bernard M. Knox, ed. Bernard Knox, ed. Bernard Knox, Bernard M.W. Knox, Bernard M.W. Knox, Knox Bernard M.W., Editor Bernard Knox, Professor Bernard Knox, Prof. Bernard M.W. Knox, Bernard MacGregor Walker Knox, Bernard MacGregor Walker Knox, Bernard MacGregor Walker Knox

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Works by Bernard Knox

Popular Recent

The Norton Book of Classical Literature (1993) — Editor — 698 copies

The Oldest Dead White European Males: And Other Reflections on the Classics (1993) 195 copies

The Heroic Temper (1964) 75 copies

The Cambridge History of Classical Literature: I - Greek Literature (1985) — Editor — 60 copies

Oedipus at Thebes: Sophocles' Tragic Hero and His Time (1957) 57 copies

Essays Ancient and Modern (1989) 50 copies

Backing into the Future: The Classical Tradition and Its Renewal (1994) 42 copies

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

Word and Action: Essays on the Ancient Theater (1979) 34 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

L'Iliade, poème du XXIe siècle (2006) 2 copies

'Playboy of the Roman World' in NYRB, 15 Jan 1998 [review of Barchiesi's 'The Poet & the Prince: Ovid & Augustan… 1 copy

The Ajax of Sophocles 1 copy

WORLD MASTERPIECES REVISED VOLUME 1 (1965) 1 copy

World Masterpieces Volume 2 Literature of Western Culture since the Renaissance (1956) 1 copy

The Aeneid: Introduction Booklet 1 copy

Classical Literature 1 copy

Morton's Book of Classical Literature 1 copy

Sophocle I: Sophocles and the Polis 1 copy

Vol. 07 (1973) 'Review: Sophocles. A Reading by G.H. Gellie' 1 copy

Work Explorer

Associated Works

The Odyssey (0750) — Introduction, some editions — 52,971 copies

The Iliad (0750) — Introduction, some editions — 39,881 copies

The Aeneid (0029) — Introduction, some editions — 22,870 copies

Antigone / Oedipus Rex / Oedipus at Colonus (0442) — Introduction, some editions — 13,177 copies

Metamorphoses [in translation] (0008) — Introduction, some editions — 13,168 copies

Oedipus Rex (0429) — Translator, some editions — 6,592 copies

The Iliad / The Odyssey (0008) — Introduction, some editions — 5,785 copies

The World of Odysseus (1954) — Introduction, some editions — 1,132 copies

The Black Hunter: Forms of Thought and Forms of Society in the Greek World (1981) — Foreword, some editions — 85 copies

Virgil: A Collection of Critical Essays (1966) — Contributor, some editions — 62 copies

Sophocles: A Collection of Critical Essays (1966) — Contributor — 41 copies

Intelligence Activities in Ancient Rome: Trust in the Gods, but Verify (2005) — Foreword, some editions — 24 copies

Tragic themes in Western literature (1956) — Contributor — 18 copies

Medea (Literary Companion Series) (2000) — Contributor — 11 copies

Oxford Readings in Menander, Plautus, and Terence (2002) — Contributor — 11 copies

New Perspectives in Early Greek Art (Studies in the History of Art) (1991) — Contributor — 10 copies

Sophocles (Bloom's Modern Critical Views) (1990) — Contributor — 8 copies

Readings on Sophocles (1996) — Contributor — 8 copies

Yale classical studies. Volume 13 — Contributor — 2 copies

Tagged

(13) ancient (15) Ancient Greece (24) ancient history (17) ancient literature (9) Ancient Rome (8) anthology (67) antiquity (7) classic (7) classical (23) Classical Greece (8) classical literature (57) classical studies (17) classics (91) criticism (9) drama (24) essays (22) fiction (37) Greece (31) Greek (33) Greek History (8) Greek literature (41) Greek tragedy (7) history (38) Latin literature (11) literary criticism (20) literary history (11) literature (86) non-fiction (28) own (7) philosophy (19) poetry (16) reference (18) Roman (12) Roman literature (7) Rome (14) Sophocles (19) theatre (10) to-read (22) tragedy (18)

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.

Members

Discussions

Bernard Knox dead at 95 in Ancient History (August 2010)

Reviews

Oldest Dead White European Males by Bernard Knox

Super interesting book. I especially liked the essay that discussed the humanities in education, which made several brilliant points about why exactly the humanities were started in the first place (basically, democracy) and why they are still important today. It spoke to me on a personal level, having acquired a humanities education in an increasingly tech-focused society, and I don't mind saying that it made me feel better about my choice.

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)

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blueskygreentrees | 4 other reviews | Jul 30, 2023 |

Philosophy, History and Oratory by P. E. Easterling

Way too complicated for me, I need more of a beginner's guide!

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elahrairah | Oct 25, 2022 |

The Oldest Dead White European Males: And Other… by Knox Bernard

Much as I love Knox, this is actually inessential. A little defensive in parts and doesn't say anything you didn't already know. Why should we read the classics? Because they have awesome fight scenes, shut up.

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AlCracka | 4 other reviews | Apr 2, 2013 |

Oldest Dead White European Males: And Other… by Bernard MacGregor Walke Knox

Interesting. The philosophy got a little deep occasionally (OK, I don't usually read philosophy at all), but his notion of just how deep the roots of our current American/Western culture are in ancient Greece was very interesting. And now I want to read some of those Greek plays - I have some, never got around to reading them.

Oh, and only one of the three essays/speeches that made up the book was specifically about defending the notion that DWEM have something to contribute nowadays - the other two, and the foreword, mostly focused on _how_ they do, not _whether_ they do. Made it more interesting - both sides of that argument tend to get a bit strident.… (more)

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jjmcgaffey | 4 other reviews | Jun 26, 2008 |

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