YES Leo Lemay

Joseph Alberic Leo Lemay (born January 17, 1935 in Bristow , Virginia ; died October 15, 2008 ) was an American literary scholar who was particularly prominent in his work on early American literature .

Life

Lemay, the son of a steel worker, grew up in Maryland and studied at the University of Maryland (BA 1957, MA 1962) after graduating from high school . His Ph.D. he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1965 . From 1965-77 he taught at the University of California, Los Angeles , and from 1975 he held a full professorship there. In 1977 he accepted a call from the University of Delaware , where he became DuPont Winterthur Professor of English Language and Literature.

Lemay wrote numerous papers on American colonial and early republic literature. Compared to the dominant representation of this matter since Perry Miller at the latest , which focuses on the Puritans of New England, Lemay underlined the importance of the literature of the southern states and middle colonies such as Pennsylvania and Maryland. Benjamin Franklin was of particular interest . In 1981, together with PM Zall, he published the most important historical and critical edition of Franklin's autobiography, and he arranged a two-volume selection of Franklin's major works for the Library of America . Most recently he worked on a seven-volume biography of Franklin, of which he was only able to complete three volumes by his death in 2008. Since 1997, he has published many of the sources he examined in the course of his research on his website Benjamin Franklin: A Documentary History .

literature

Works

• Ebenezer Kinnersley, Franklin's Friend. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia 1964.
• Men of Letters in Colonial Maryland. University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville 1972. ISBN 0-870491377
• (Ed.): The Oldest Revolutionary: Essays on Benjamin Franklin . University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia 1976. ISBN 0-8122-77074
• (Ed. With Paul M. Zall): The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin: A Genetic Text . University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville 1981. ISBN 087049256X
• New England's Annoyances: America's First Folk Song. University of Delaware Press, Newark 1985. ISBN 0874132789
• The Canon of Benjamin Franklin, 1722-1776: New Attributions and Reconsiderations. University of Delaware Press, Newark 1986. ISBN 0874132908
• (Ed. With Paul M. Zall): Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography: An Authoritative Text, Backgrounds, Criticism . WW Norton, New York 1986. ISBN 0393952940
• (Ed.): Robert Bolling Woos Anne Miller: Love and Courtship in Colonial Virginia, 1760 . University Press of Virginia, Charlottesville 1990. ISBN 0813912598
• The American Dream of Captain John Smith. University of Virginia Press, Charlottesville 1991. ISBN 0-8139-1321-7 .
• Did Pocahontas Save Captain John Smith? University of Georgia Press, Athens GA 1992. ISBN 0-820314617
• The Life of Benjamin Franklin. 3 volumes, 2005–2008 [unfinished]:
  • Vol. 1: Journalist, 1706-1730. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8122-3854-0
  • Vol. 2: Printer and Publisher, 1730-1747. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8122-3855-9
  • Vol. 3: Soldier, Scientist, and Politician, 1748-1757. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008. ISBN 0-8122-4121-5

Secondary literature

• Anon .: A Tribute to JA Leo Lemay: Honored Scholar of Early American Literature. In: Early American Literature 35: 1, 2000. pp. 1-4.
• Carla Mulford: JA Leo Lemay (1935-2008), Ambassador of Early American Literary Studies . In: Early American Literature 45: 3, 2010. pp. 683-698.

Festschrift

• Carla Mulford, David S. Shields: Finding Colonial America: Essays Honoring JA Leo Lemay. University of Delaware Press, 2001. (Festschrift) ISBN 0874137225